Hey all, i recently bought a 97 F250 7.3 and love it so far. I replaced an ignition switch in november and haven’t had any issues. Within the past week i’ve been hearing a clicking coming from the column when turning, which i assumed was the plastic shroud that covers the column. It clicks when turning and it’s gotten worse and almost sounds like a spring winding. I’ve noticed some play in the wheel, going up and down like the tilt is suddenly worn out. if anyone has ideas i’d love to hear them

 

Probably the clock spring.

 

The upper and lower column bearings click sometimes before they fail and get loose (fall apart, stick and bind)
Might be the clockspring or turn signal cancel cam if you did not get that all assembled correctly after the ignition switch replacement
Not sure how far you tore it down to do that repair,
Those column shrouds are far enough away they usually hit nothing if installed properly
Might contact the back of the steering wheel if installed improperly
See if you can pull the steering in and out or side to side to check the bearings
Looks like you need to pull the tilt pins and replace them and the jacket to fix the loose tilt, so you will be back in there anyway
Fairly hard job to replace the bearings as the tilt needs to be disassembled for the lower one

 

I only took the plastic shrouds off and reinstalled. Didn’t take anything apart aside from the shrouds and the cylinder itself. The wheel does have play so i’m sorta worried about it getting worse. i’ll look into replacing the bearings