[Karadjgne]

That's a mixed bag of opinions. For some, the rag joint does involve dampening road vibrations so is good for lower performance cruisers etc, but on the other hand the jeep u-joints do offer more responsiveness and better feel for the road.

Either way, if the boot is that trashed, the rag joint isn't that far behind it. There's 3 options, really. Replace just the rag, which is a pain and involves grinding, heat and air-tools, or replace the entire shaft with a new rag setup, or replace it with the jeep upgrade (new or used). Just 2 nuts, one on each end, and a prybar will generally get 'er done.

My upgrade was a new jeep shaft, but the idiots had spot-stamped it solid in 2 places, so that involved drilling out the stamps so it would compress. No big deal, really.

 

[Karadjgne]

No, can't just pull the steering wheel. By far it's easier to just apply a little heat at the center where the intermediate shafts collapse, pull them apart, flip and put back together. The only grinding necessary is a very small notch on the steering column shaft, and thats only to allow the bolt to slide through. The fact that the bolt is now sitting in a notch and prevents even a loose connection from sliding off is just a bonus. Took me @ 3 minutes with a rat-tail file. The notch only needs be @ 1-1.5 mm deep.

Grinding the u-joints off is really doing things the hard way and totally unnecessary.