The end of mine was mushroomed pretty bad aswell. The only way to fix it right is to pull the whole assembly out. You'll have to dissasemble the steering box to get the main shaft out. Once the main shaft is out I put mine in the lathe and took a light pass across it so I can run a die nut on it to restore the threads. You might have to take the shaft to a machine shop if you don't have access to a lathe. It's an easy job once the shaft is out. john.