Since I bought my truck about four years ago, I have been replacing just about every suspension component that I thought was going to be causing the play in my steering wheel. No matter what, I could not get the steering wheel to stop having play. I always assumed that it was something to do with the fact that I have a diesel leak, and it keeps ruining any form of rubber on the front end of the truck. I finally figured out what was causing all my troubles, and figured I would share my findings in a simple little walkthrough for yall.



So for starters. This is my ugly beast. 91 F250, 2WD with 7.3IDI Non-Turbo.

First step is to drop the steering column. Two panels under the column need to be swing out of the way and then there is two nuts holding the steering column to the dashboard. Once you drop it down to the seat, you can get to the bolts attaching the steering column to the firewall.


This is what the column looks like it after it has been separated.



This is the metal clip that I needed. It also has the plastic clip that holds it to the column. What happened was when i was doing one of the repairs, this piece had fallen out off the column. I spent about four trips and 6 hours to various junkyards to finally find a doner that had the piece, and the plastic piece intact.


The way that it installs, is the metal clip sets in the two grooves, and the plastic piece slides over the shaft to lock the clip in place.


After this you simply slide the column back together, button back up, and hopefully your steering wheel play goes away. I hope this helps anybody who may have been running into these issues.

 

Thank you. My 1989 F-150 with tilt steering has a quite big play and I suspect this to be the cause.

 

Thank you for sharing. I do have one question. Is it possible to remove from the gear box rather than dropping the entire column? Thanks in advance.

 

yes, unbolt from box and the complete column with upper and lower shaft can be pulled out of the truck.
the parts mentioned are "non serviceable" parts.
in other words, you can not buy them if you need them, your only choice is to find a wrecked column to strip, or replace the column

 

Thanks for posting. Most of the discussions about steering columns tend to be about the '92 - '97 trucks, which are entirely different. I've always had too much play in my steering wheel - now I have something to check.

 

Thanks. I guess I now need to hit the yards. Not much selection here. I may need to search them online.

 

Car-Part.com--Used Auto Parts Market
this is the site i use when looking for difficult to find parts.

 

I went junkyarding yesterday and came home with three of these (both the plastic sleeve and clip). I'll probably have one for sale and hold onto a spare. PM if interested.

But what I really wanted to share is my observation that a '90 F250 had a support arm for the column in the engine bay that attached to the frame. I'm not sure if this was just offered on the heavy duty trucks or was an option or ??? The truck I saw it on did indeed have the most solid-feeling steering wheel I've ever observed on a 8th gen truck.

 

that may have been an owner added piece. i have never seen a frame mounted column support on any of the trucks i took care of, F-250, 350, or F-Superduty.

 

It looked very "factory", or at least quality after-market. I guess I should have taken pics, if not retrieved it.

Perhaps if I make it back I'll do so.

 

Unfortunately I never made it back to the yard to take pics and this truck would have been crushed by now. Going forward, I'll keep looking for another one with this support arm. It really did look "factory".

Any way, I did go ahead and pull my steering column the other day. The plastic sleeve and clip were present, but as long as I had a spare clip, I decided to try an experiment. I put it in a vise and squeezed it until it retained a little more pre-load bend than the one I removed. Then I cleaned, re-greased and re-assembled with the "new" clip.

I think I feel a slight improvement, but I might be imagining that. I suspect most of my play is from the bearing assembly at the steering wheel. I've yet to read about anyone rebuilding that on this era column, but now that I know '80 - '91 is the same, maybe I need to cast a wider net on that search.

 

Just searched the Bullnose forum, and indeed I found what I was looking for, a thorough write-up on re-building the steering column.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...rt-number.html

Again, keep in mind, the '80 - '91 steering columns are all pretty much the same. '92 - '97 is very different and bears pretty much nothing in common with the earlier columns.

 

Went junkyarding a couple days ago and found another example of what I had seen last fall. In fact, this truck was also a 1990 F-250. Pic below which clearly shows the support arm I referenced. I'm assuming it probably is most easily swapped by removing and replacing the entire column. The only mod' you'd need on the F-150 is drilling the hole in the frame.

 

could you possibly highlight what you are talking about?
the only thing i see attached to the column in that picture is the automatic transmission shift linkage going down to the in frame pivot link.

 

Hmmm, so is the circled item the shift linkage? I've only seen it on F-250's.