Since the stock GM top joint is actually a CV-type joint, I chose to use that in the upgrade. This also allowed me to upgrade all 6 of my CUCVs with just 3 of the '97-01 model XJ shafts ( I bought four shafts off ebay for a grand total of about $95 including shipping, and the lowest price I could find for a single Borgeson unit was $235). There is a snap ring that holds that joint together. I used a pick to take the snap ring out and inspected the CV joint, found it to be like-new with the grease even looking fresh, and put it back together. If you drill the plastic pins out of the GM shaft, it will slide apart easily.
Ok, I finally figured out how to send these pics to my flikr account.
1) Cut the rag joint flange. All the way through on one side, and then about half way through on the other, then pry the first side open with a flat-tip screwdriver. It will practically fall off the shaft but may need a little help with a small hammer. You will then find the bottom part of that female shaft is indeed a DD section that matches the male shaft of the XJ perfectly.
2) Shows the XJ shafts with the late-models on top and bottom and the '84-94 model in the middle.
3) The shafts pull apart by hand.
4) I cut the lower ujoint off about 2" up, but if you want to only cut it an inch up, it will give you one more inch of collapsability.
5) Shows the old bottom GM shaft with the flange taken off and the XJ's ujoint wedged in place. It is a nice tight fit. I put another joint next to it to show how much the male shaft went into the female shaft (don't get excited). If you want to get back every bit of the collapsable section, you could cut the male shaft off perhaps 1/2" from the end, then wedge it in and weld a bead around the area where they bottom out together.
6) Shows the other end of the XJ's shaft with that u-joint in place. Keep in mind, I am using a 2-WD steering box on this M1028 for a crossover steering mod, so your splines may be a little different. The splines are a little different with the 2WD box, but the female part on the XJ's upper shaft is made of aluminum, so with a small ball-peen hammer, it will slide right onto the male splines of the steering box, and fits nicely after that. If you knock it back off, you'll see how there is just a little area that will have an indention of maybe two splines dug into the flat area of the aluminum spline section, and they are not dug in deep at all. The bottom XJ ujoint fits like it was made for the application.
7) This is the only problem with using the upper part of the XJ intermediate steering shaft for it's ujoint. The length of the part that is able to collapse is decreased to about 2". Since there is is such a long overlap between the shafts, I'll probably take the bottom section back out, take it to a machine shop, and have them DD the female shaft all the way down, then cut off about 6 more inches, or wherever the stock GM shaft comes up to, and reinstall it with every bit of the collapsable portion back in place. I'll post how much the machine shop charges to run the shaft through a press to DD it.
