Fiesta intermediate steering shaft bolts

[Coaster]

There's loads of intermediate steering shafts available but Cannot find any new bolts to fit as recommended by various places.
I've looked in obvious places like eBay Amazon etc.. and also called various car parts places in my area.
The steering shafts I've seen don't come with replacement bolts either.
My steering shaft is clunky so was also thinking of cleaning the joints with break cleaner and try to push red rubber grease into the universal joints and see if that'll fix the clunkyness, leaving the steering shaft in situ

Any thoughts on this?

 

[Mottie]

Are you talking about the lower steering shaft with the u/j? Have you removed/disconnected it to see if it is the joint that’s clunking? As far as I can remember, the joint is sealed at manufacture, you won’t get any grease into them. I’ve never fitted new bolts on them. Re-use the old ones and put some locktite on them if you’re concerned about them coming loose. I’ve never use any though…..

 

[Coaster]

Yes that's the one. I have tried getting hold of it and pulled it about to try and get any movement from it but didn't get any.
Didn't remove the bolts after reading that safety notice.
Could just order a new shaft from the internet.

 

[Burnerman]

On the early Fiestas, the bottom UJ would occasionally lose a needle roller, which would cause the steering to stiffen.......but not jam.
After that it would be back to normal.
I always reused the bolts.
Have you checked the power steering fluid level, or are you convinced it's the steering shaft at fault?
Regards
John

 

[Coaster]

On the early Fiestas, the bottom UJ would occasionally lose a needle roller, which would cause the steering to stiffen.......but not jam.
After that it would be back to normal.
I always reused the bolts.
Have you checked the power steering fluid level, or are you convinced it's the steering shaft at fault?
Regards
John

It's Eps as far as I'm aware,
Yes I'm pretty sure . The clunk noise is in the cab with me and can also feel the clunk through the steering wheel.
Looks like I'll have to be like hudini and double jointed to get it out, I'll be careful and follow the advice about not moving the steering wheel about while changing it

 

[Avocet]

Bit of a long shot, but some Fiestas are very similar to the Mazda 2. Some years ago, my daughter had one where the steering would feel "notchy" and knock a bit as you turned it. That also had electric assistance. It took me ages to find the problem. The lower part of the steering column is telescopic - partly to allow column adjustment but also to allow it to slide in a crash, rather than push the column towards you. The geometry of the setup was such that the two parts of the column had to slide in and out of each other very slightly as you turned the steering wheel.

What had happened, was that the grease on the splines had dried up. When you turned the wheel, the splines couldn't slide as easily, so you put a tiny bit more torque on the wheel. This was detected by the electric power steering system, which then told its control box to give more assistance. The spline would then "jump" a faction, the required torque would reduce, so the power steering servo would reduce its assistance. At this point the spline would stick again, torque required would increase, more assistance would be given, spline would jump again...and so on.

A bit of CV joint grease on the splines of the telescopic part, cured it instantly!