Steering is generally considered an important piece of the automotive puzzle. When your steering goes bad, things can go wrong very quickly. I recently had the pleasure of experiencing what happens in an old truck when the steering coupler decides to give up. Thankfully, it was at its worst when I was only two miles from home and the major direction of travel was straight. Still, it was like driving a slow, shitty boat trying to keep the truck tracking where I needed it to go. So, with a quick order placed into LMC Truck for a new part, it was time to get dirty under the HoonTruck hood. Now many of you will see this as a pretty easy job. And you’re right, it is certainly that as it only involves removing or merely loosening of a handful of bolts. Still, for yours truly it’s, on its face, daunting as it involves fiddling with the parts that keep me moving along my intended path. This is what Sunday afternoons are for though, right? The sun was shining, the classic rock was playing cleanly through my Bluetooth speaker, and a delicious can of beer was resting on my engine. The old rag joint came out with no fuss. Hell, parts of it came out simply by be me twisting and pulling on them with little effort. The rest of the part involved loosening where it attaches to the steering box and then loosening the steering column itself. I slid the old unit back and then out. The new unit was the installed in the reverse of the removal of the old part. It was easily accessible from both the top and the underside of the truck, which is where I found myself tightening part of the unit. You know, because I forgot for a moment that you could spin the whole damn thing. It was easier to get that “bottom” bolt started from underneath though, so I’m not a total moron here. I had other items I needed to take care of on this Sunday, so I didn’t get to fully tighten everything down. The column needs to be pushed into place so it and the steering wheel are flush. I’ll go back in there, tighten it all up and take it for a short test drive around the neighborhood. Then I’ll come back, check it all and make sure everything is still nice and tight. As I said earlier, it’s probably a very easy fix for most of you. Now it’s also a very easy fix for me as well, yet it felt great to walk out of the garage knowing I actually fixed something in there. [Images copyright 2016 Hooniverse/Jeff Glucker]