Is the intermediate shaft on a 69 442 auto,tilt wheel, supposed to slide free where it is joined in the middle or is it stationary? It looks like it has pean marks to hold it together. I reinstalled it and it seems to long, there is no play to remove it without taking off the gear box. All parts are the ones removed. Thanks for the help! The column was not removed and the gearbox is in the original mounting holes.

 

There is some in and out play in the coupling assembly with the rubber boot, tilt and regular columns use the same one, all the tilt stuff is inside the top of the column in the car.
Shouldn't be play anywhere else except a tiny bit in the rag joint. On my '71 the lower steering shafts is held together with nylon pins that shear in an accident so the shaft can collapse, have to make sure those are there. I think the tool marks are from pressing those in?, see those bunch of indentations like it was clamped in a vice on the larger shaft section all the time. My '68 goat has a wire mesh section on the column in the car so it can collapse.
I just did mine and I took the rag joint apart then attached the one half to the steering box first and installed it, there was a enough play in the shaft coupling to slide it back and then forward to reassemble the rag joint.

 

Thanks Bluevista! Im almost sure there should be enough play to remove the shaft without removing the gearbox. The shop manual also shows unclamping and pushing up into the coupling and lifting the ragjoint off the gearbox flange then sliding the shaft off of the column. I think I removed it that way also. I will reinvestigate and see what I come up with. Thanks again.

 

As Bluevista noted, the intermediate shaft is supposed to collapse in an accident. The two portions of the shaft telescope and the plastic pins really just hold the two parts together on the assembly line. Once installed in the car, there's no way the shaft can come apart, so the plastic pins are redundant.

 

I looked at the shaft again and cant see anything wrong with the install, but I know Ive replaced many rag joints over the years without touching the gearbox. Thanks guys for the responses and if I come up with an explanation Ill post what I find. Thanks again

 

how are the body mounts,if they are badly worn the body may have droped enough to make the shaft seem too long.just thinking out loud.