Rag joint safety.

[JoeD]

Last week I had to replace the rag joint on my "new" 1978 T-bird. Although low mileage, the rubber disc had developed serious cracks from the rubber becoming hard and brittle with age. This must be a common problem with Fords built around that era since I also have a 1981 Mercury Zephyr which was also low mileage when I got it (I know because my grandmother had it from when it was brand new, so I know it had 21,000 original miles when I got it in 1996). Within a year, the rag joint in the '81 Zephyr was falling apart just like on my 1978 T-bird.

I had a suspicion that the rag joint would soon fail when I noticed it was made out of the same type of rubber (solid rubber without any fabric reinforcement embedded in it) as my Zephyr had. I had a replacement all ready to go, and made sure I kept a very close eye on the original joint. When I saw several cracks open up and rubber starting to fall off, I knew it was time.

Since you can have a potentially serious loss of steering control if the joint fails (on both of my cars the old joint literally disintegrated when removed from the car), check your joints. On my Zephyr, I had up to three inches of play in the steering wheel before I realized what was happening--this is on a rack and pinion system that should normally have almost no play!

If you don't know what a rag joint is, it's a rubber disc (some shop manuals call it a "flex cooupler") that joins the steering column with the gear box (or rack if you have rack and pinion steering). I don't know why Ford used the type of rubber they did during that time. Other cars, such as my '76 Comet, have a different type of rubber with fabric in it to reinforce it. My Comet still has the original joint and it's still solid as a rock.



Joe

[g_lower]

replaced the one on my 79 cougar with a poly disk. was completely gone when I got the car back in 2000.

[64yellowbird]

I drove my 79 on the freeway and white-knuckled it all the way to work. It was all over the road. I thought the front end was coming apart. I found nothing left of that joint coupler. It was a royal pain-in-the-you-know-what to replace also since the joint is obsolete and the only replacement I could find was a universal one that I had to modify to fit and then it was a fight with a pry bar to get it hooked back up to the steering system.