My steering is playing up.I can move my steering wheel up and down about an inch either way and the wheel seems to have come out about 1cm.It feels like the shaft inside has pulled out of it's position.The entire column dose not move just the wheel and maybe the shaft.Also there was 2 or 3 ball bearings on the carpet.
The most important thing is is it safe to drive.

Cheers.



Jeff

 

Jeff,
Greetings to Austrailia! I once dated a girl from Tazmania. Anyway, on to business. I wouldn't leave that problem unattended for much longer. There are 2 things I don't reccomend putting off repairs in is Steering systems and Brakes.
It sounds like your upper bearing is shot. The parts are cheap, and its not very hard to repair but does require some special tools that you may or may not have access to. You'll need a steering wheel puller, Lock plate hold down tool. Circlip pliers <if you have an airbag> for the sir coil, and possibly may need a pivot pin puller if its the bottom upper bearing and of course a phillips screwdriver. If you are interested in tackling the problem yourself, email me at jay4speed@***.net and I can talk you through it provided you can get the special tools.

Jay

 

If it's a tilt wheel the bolts in the colum have loosend up.Disasemble the steering wheel and tighten them up.there a bitch!!!

wonderwomans hubby
Lord Deklin:hail:

 

Thanks for the reply's
I think i will try and fix it on the weekend when i get the tools needed.
Jay4speed i might send you and email around that time if thats ok.
With the bearings can you get them from any bearing place or it has to be a chevy dealer.
Thanks


Jeff


P.S is it realy a ***ch to do.

 

Jeff, the bearings will have to be purchased from a chevy dealer. They come as part of a package called a "rack kit" which includes the bearings and some other parts of the column that are commonly replaced when a vehicle gets stolenand the column gets broken. That is why it is packaged that way. I will be going to work tomorrow {monday} and I will try to get you the most recent part number for the kit to save you some time {I'm a mechanic at a chevrolet dealer}. I do have some exploded views on hand I can give you when your ready. Just contact me via email.

Jay

 

it is not necesarly the bearings but if your gona take it down you should probably replace them anyways, and yes it is a real **tch to do, if you have any further ? just drop me a line i had to the same thing to my camaro, ...................

 

Looks like i have to wait a week or two for the parts to get delivered then i will do the job.I hope.
Thanks heaps.

P.S the steering wheel (shaft) won't come off in my hands or steering won't just fail will it?
Because i do a lot of freeway driving and a lot of miles.



Jeff

 

it won't fall off but its good to get it fixed before it causes other problems.you'll need a wheel puller,a long 1/4 inch extention and ratchet and a phillips screwdriver the bolts are them dam torques so you will need those to.when you get the wheel and column apart you will see what ya need to do any other ? let me know


Lord Deklin:hail:

 

There is a tech article on how to do this. The only thing it lacks is the exploded views. The screws that hold the tilt portion are the inverted torx and use the torx socket. I just did my column because the tilt portion was REALLY loose and after I got it back together, the shaft is loose. So Jay, could I get that info from you? E-mail is:

jump6pack@theriver.com

Thanks and like they said earlier, it is a pain. Key thing to remember is where all the blasted parts go back into the thing!

 

Any idea what a Chevy Dealership mechanic would charge to fix this? I don't have the tools and I don't have enough time.

 

Here's an exploded view

 

That didn't work out like I wanted it too.

 

One last try......

 

Thanks guys
All this info is realy going to help


Thanks again


Jeff

 

I've taken it apart and i can do the upper bearing but i can't get the pivot pins out is there any way to get the pins out without a pivot pin remover.
Do the centering sphere,joint preload spring normaly break or is it normaly just the bearings.
Thanks again.



Jeff

 

I've tightened the torx screws and put 2 new bearings in but it is still loose
Is there anything else below the screws and bearings that can cause this problem.
Thanks



Jeff

 

jeff, check your email

when you have the upper tilt head off, check the 4 bolts #51 into plate #58 in the picture above. Those tend to work their way loose and can make the whole assembly move also. Was there any difference once you changed the bearings? Where there ***** missing?

 

This was my email to Jeff in case anyone else was intersted in this problem:

Jeff,
I've always had a pivot pin remover since I started repairing theft jobs years ago. I've never tried it without the tool. But a solution does come to mind. Maybe you can goto a hardware store and find a screw that will fit in the hole of the pivot pin. {In case you didn't know, the pivot pin hole is threaded}. Get one that is on the longer side. Then grab the screw under the head with a pair of pliers. Then use a small hammer to knock the pliers in the direction of pin removal. The pivot pin is not held in there by great force it should only be lightly press fitted into place and should not take a tremendous amount of force to remove. Just be sure to take a big Phillips screwdriver and unhook the tilt spring, it can keep things from getting messy when the pins are removed. Also take a good long look at how everything fits in there, its when you take the tilt head off that things can get really confusing. If you need anymore help let me know!
JAY

 

The lower bearing looked like it had just fallen apart some of the bearings were on the floor.
The upper bearing had 2 or 3 bearings missing.
It seems to have solved that problem there is no movement anymore but it is a bit harder to turn the wheel and it dos'nt
center itself properly after turning a corner anymore.
Any help on what this could be.
One thing after another.It never ends.
Thanks



Jeff