connected to the steering main shaft 7 and the steering gear shaft 9 by a pair of universal joints 10 11 fig2 shows a perspective view of the coupling 1 of the present invention portions of the coupling 1 have been removed to show the details of the coupling 1 the coupling 1 is comprised of three main components an outer tubular shaft member 20 an inner shaft member 24 and a spring member 22 located between the outer shaft member 20 and the inner shaft member 24 the inner shaft member 24 and the outer shaft member 20 are slidable relative to one another preferably the spring member 22 is fixed relative to one of the two shaft members a lower shaft 30 is connected to the inner shaft member 24 the outer shaft member 20 may be axially extended such that universal joint 10 is attached directly to the outer shaft member 20 an upper shaft member not shown may be used to connect the outer shaft member 20 to the universal joint 10 in the preferred embodiment the lower shaft 30 is slidable within the inner shaft member 24 this permits the lower and upper portions of the shaft assembly to collapse either for ease of assembly or during a collision of the automobile the lower shaft 30 has a double d shape which permits transmission of torque between the inner shaft member 24 and the lower shaft 30 the outer.