Hello, the steering column in my 92 is wobbly. It's not the 4 bolts that everyone attributes to loose columns, it's the hole the pivot pins sit in. The hole is so worn that I didn't even need a puller for them I could just thread into them and pull them out, even after smacking them back into their hole.

There seems to be an almost endless amount of threads on loose and wobbly columns with little to no solutions other than replacement or tighten the 4 bolts. I've taken the column apart a number of times in the last couple of days to fix this, and it just isn't getting tight enough to pass inspection I wrapped tape around the pins to give them a tighter tolerance and it has worked, just not good enough, it now only has about an inch of play as opposed to several.

My question today is I've read on the corvette forum a few people suggesting coating the pins in JB weld, and am wondering what others here think. Or if anyone has any other advice I would love to hear it.

Ken.

 

Spend a couple of bucks and leave it to the pros.had mine fixed for about $50.00.

 

Unfortunately there are few "pros" for American steering columns in Germany, and at 75 Euros an hour on the same learning curve as me it isn't worth it. What do they do? Drill the hole bigger and use a different size pin? I have all the tools and know-how to disassemble and reassemble, just need suggestions for the pins.

 

That would be a great idea, take it completely apart, inspect it to make sure you could put bigger pins in and then drill the holes bigger for your new custom pins.

They have 2 be super worn out! anyway to make metal shims to tap in wit a hammer??

 

It is totally worn, I've got 4 pins that I've been interchanging to see if any of them have a little more thickness to them, but no, I can pull them all out by hand. I really don't like the JB weld idea, but I may just do it tonight and if it works great and if it doesn't, take my chances with a used column.

 

The JB weld seems to have worked, I put it back together last night and let it cure and this morning it is extremely tight. I haven't used the tilt function yet as I want it to cure for atleast 24 hours before moving it. Here is the link to the corvette forum, though, when I read through it lastnight I realised he actually bought new pieces for the pins to sit in, so it's unlikely he needed to use anything to add thickness to the pins, and probably just did it for peace of mind?
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c4-t...pictorial.html

I did it a little differently I mixed the JB weld and rolled the pin in it and stood it upright and let it start hardening while I disassembled the column. Once the column was ready I smeared a light coating on the outer lip of where the pin sits and hammered the **** out of the pin getting it to seat. Since it is the pin on the left side I made sure that the key still turned free since that gear slider thing is around the pin. I tired wiggling the wheel after I was done and it felt tight and like I said earlier this morning it feels like a new column.