movable steering wheel

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Apr 11, 2006 | 07:43 PM

bjbmoglo

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movable steering wheel

My steering wheel has about 30 degrees of movement up and down and side to side. It is loose to, but at this point I am not to concerned with that. Is this bearings or the rag joint? After I take the steering wheel off and move the nub up and down nothing around the pedals is moving so I am guessing it is somewhere above that. This section is very hard to get to. Any help on this? Should I just have the whole thing replaced?

I have read a few threads and from what I have seen I need to deal with the rag joint. Not sure this makes sense to me since nothing is moving around there. I just hope my exploratory work earlier today hasn't messed anything up too bad.

btw, Thanks to the forum for help on the oil leaks. Did all but the rear seal, and figured out it was the heater core leaking on to old oil drops making the mess. That is going too.

thanks

Apr 11, 2006 | 09:50 PM

greystreak92

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From: Gateway to the West

Let me get this straight, you are getting about a 30-degree rotation out of the steering wheel before the front wheels will respond? Yikes, if its got a rag joint left at all, yes replace it. With that much play it could be more than just that. Have someone turn the wheel slowly while you watch the shaft moving under the hood. Take note of how far the shaft rotates before the pitman arm moves. If the shaft rotates that far before the pitman arm moves you have steering gear issues that may be correctable without major repairs. If the pitman arm responds immediately, Check your tierod ends and front end suspension components.

Apr 12, 2006 | 08:06 AM

bjbmoglo

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no no no. Steering is loose, but that is not my concern. When the steering wheel is off, the part that the steering wheel screw goes into moves that much up and down. To be more clear, when the steering wheel is on I can move it side to side and up and down a few inches. Nothing to do with turning it. This has caused the electrical contacts on the back of the steering wheel to be shorn off twice.

What I was trying to say was when I move the steering wheel in the above fasion the universal joint by the accel and brake doesn't flinch, so I was inducing that the problem was b/t that joint and the steering wheel. It is a mess there. That was the guidance I was looking for.

Thanks greystreak...

Apr 12, 2006 | 05:28 PM

greystreak92

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From: Gateway to the West

Ahh ok, is it a tilt wheel column? If so, there is another U-joint inside the column that could be bad. Otherwise you probably are dealing with bearings inside the column itself.

Apr 12, 2006 | 08:35 PM

bjbmoglo

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Thanks grey- I decided to scrap trying to fix it internally and just replace from the universal joint by the pedals back to the steering wheel. Its all off except that I cannot get off the cxn from the shifter to the bracket that holds the steering column on. I assume this is the overdrive control, but dunno. What is the trick to getting this thing off? Every thing is flopping around but I cannot figure out how to get this piece off. It has what looks like a 6 point head but between that and its mount is a ball type thing. Any ideas?

Although grey has walked me through fixing the better part of the beast, ill say again- 92 5L with tilt and cruise (i dont see the cruise making it through this!)

thanks in advance.

Apr 12, 2006 | 10:18 PM

greystreak92

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From: Gateway to the West

Wow, not sure I can walk you through this one very well I've never torn that far into the column. The only column I ever dealt with that was that far apart was so because fire ate everything else away from it. (Had to steer GS by hand with a 12" Crescent wrench on the end of the steering shaft to move her remains around).