Steering coupler not seated right??

[lokister]

Hey everyone,

I’m knees deep in my Z3 rack swap and decided to replace the coupler at the end of the lower steering column since I have the “BMW shimmy” and am throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks.

Well, I think I might have run into an issue. The upper end of the coupler seated all the way perfectly the first time — no anti seize needed. However, getting the rack end on was a total b!tch and it looked like there was some torsion on the coupler and the rack end was not seated fully to boot. I did a second attempt where I moved the coupler down off the column about 2-3 mm and further into the rack, but it’s not fully seated on either end in the coupler AND there’s still some torsion/play in the rubber.

My question is this: will my second attempt (pictures below) function properly/ensure the coupler last as long as it’s supposed to? My original coupler did not have the same kink/bend/torsion as pictured with the new one.

The rack is bolted into the subframe in both pics btw...

Pics:
First attempt: https://m.imgur.com/5IL1KsT
Second attempt: https://m.imgur.com/DoC0Fec