About three weeks ago I noticed I could pull my steering wheel up some and back some and the whole assembly was loose and feeling funny. I scheduled a visit to the Ford dealer to see whats up with it and also to handle a recall concerning some insulation above the driveshaft. Well two days ago I had to stop suddenly due to an idiot cutting me off and the whole steering assembly basically dropped down into my lap. I was able to somehow drive it home while holding the steering wheel up, scared the **** of of me. Yesterday evening I got home early to diagnose it myself and saw that the steering assembly has a shaped tap on each side on the underside of it and towards the steering wheel side that each fit into a matching large tab with a huge torx bolt. After removing the upper and lower dust cover I was able to jiggle it and get it back into the two tabs pretty much. I used a large pair of channel lock pliers to slide it the rest of the way into each tab. My question is what fastener keeps the entire assembly locked into those two tabs so the assembly doesn't slide towards the firewall? I'm afraid of driving it until I can get this issue resolved. I am having to drive my wife's Honda Odyssey. Please help me guys. I hate vans, I want my truck back.

 

Looks like these 6 keep it in place, never been into it though.

 

In the top picture It matches what I have as far as the two Torx bolts shown as purple. These two bolts don't go through the steering column assembly but instead fasten matching tabs that the steering column assembly slides into. The other two pictures show bolts that are on the assembly itself (looks like they do to me anyway). I don't see another place on the underside mounts for the steering column assembly to be attached. Hard as all heck to see to begin with. Picture two still looks interesting to me though and I will check that one out further. Thanks for the nice visuals on this and your help given, I really appreciate it.

By the way, do you happen to have the OEM part numbers for these six bolts?

 

No I don't have the numbers. Is this a manually adjustable steering wheel? If so, Is the mechanical locking lever working that you would use to adjust the wheel?

 

if the colum was flopping around for a while, why didnt you look into it before it fell in your lap ?