upper steering shaft boot

[BMcQuillan]

Hello, Working on replacing both upper and lower steering shafts on my 2005 2500 5.9. Does the firewall boot pull out from under the dash? Any tricks to remove it without ruining it? Thanks for any help!

 

[Ozymandias]

You push it from the outside to the inside, the whole thing including the plastic frame. But be warned, it is fixed with a couple nasty taps that are a hell to disengage all at the same time to make it happen.
My fingers were badly bruised after that job.

If I remember correctly I ripped to old shaft out of it to the inside of the truck to have a little more room to work on. New shaft comes with new boot assembly son it didn't matter.

Make sure you have the matching parts, lower and upper shaft.

 

[BMcQuillan]

You push it from the outside to the inside, the whole thing including the plastic frame. But be warned, it is fixed with a couple nasty taps that are a hell to disengage all at the same time to make it happen.
My fingers were badly bruised after that job.

If I remember correctly I ripped to old shaft out of it to the inside of the truck to have a little more room to work on. New shaft comes with new boot assembly son it didn't matter.

Make sure you have the matching parts, lower and upper shaft.

Thank you for the info, really appreciate it. Just wanted to get a good idea from someone who has already done it. It will be nice to not have to herd it down the road anymore!

 

[Ozymandias]

One more thing - make sure to push the upper u-joint onto the shaft *before* you push the boot back into the hole. I did not and sure the u-joint refused to slip onto the shaft because it was somewhat "squeezed" from the manufacturing plant. So i had to "open" it someway under the dash... it took me an hour within that crammed room down there to do that. Otherwise it would have been a 2 minute job on the workbench.
Afterwards I needed a chiropractic...