What would cause rotational play in the steering column (as opposed to the more common tilt play)? I've verified that it's coming from the column by watching the stub shaft connection on the steering box while moving the steering wheel. In a narrow range of motion (perhaps 10 degrees) the steering wheel turns, but the stub shaft does not. I have an astro-van shaft so no rag joint.

 

If you wiggle the wheel from center, and look through your windsheild, can you see the shaft turn? I know if you didnt replace the lower column bearing it can cause this issue. Otherwise, you may have slop in the astro shaft ujoints?

 

I had the same problem and had the jeep steering shaft with the u-joints. I had to replace it due to very slight slack in the joint and it works perfect since then.

 

I watched the output shaft connection at the column itself with a mirror while moving the steering wheel. Result, the output shaft connection did not move while the steering wheel did.

I finally got to tear into the column today, here's what I found.

Some time ago I replaced the lower bushing with an astro van bearing. I found some slop between the column tube and the plastic bearing retainer. I squeezed the "ears" of the column tube together so that now I have a nice tight fit between the column and the plastic bearing retainer.

I tore down the column far enough to remove the shaft. By grabbing the upper half of the telescoping shaft in a soft-jawed vise and trying to rotate the upper yoke (where the steering wheel goes), I found visible play in the "knuckle joint" in some regions depending on where it was tilted. When I grabbed the lower half of the telescoping shaft in the vise and did the same thing, I also found some play between the upper and lower halves of the telescoping shaft.

I put in a revised "knuckle joint" (also known as the centering sphere to GM) which seems to have taken care of the "knuckle joint" play. The revised design puts a coil spring right in the middle of the joint halves, rather than the weird snap ring thing that's in the early designs. It's GM 26001507. One website, chevypartsprime.com, claims this p/n was replaced by gm 26057095 though a local gm dealer in Phoenix claimed there was no superseding part for the 26001507 part.

For the play I found between the upper and lower halves of the telescoping shaft, I am not sure what to do? The plastic shear pins seem to still be intact, but they are certainly very old. I have no idea of the shear pins are supposed to keep the telescoping shaft play free. It looks as if the sides of the very top of the lower shaft have been squeezed inward by GM many years ago, possibly to keep the play out of the lower and upper shaft halves. I could certainly squeeze those same spots further in with a vise until the play is gone. I just don't want to squeeze them so much that the shaft doesn't collapse in an accident.

Any thoughts? Should I just find a better column?

 

I ended up going to the junkyard and getting a column that seemed to have no rotational play in it from a 1990 Firebird.

I tore the column down till I was able to get the shaft out of it. This shaft had no play in it at the plastic shear pins, so I put in a new sphere joint (knuckle joint) and installed it in my existing column.

The fellow who worked on the 1990 Firebird column (probably to tighten the tilt bolts up) before me made some mistakes that meant I couldn't just swap columns, so I took the best parts of each column and made one good column.

Result.... FINALLY no more rotational play that I can perceive either while stationary or driving the car.

I have a few ideas on how to re-pot the extra shaft I now have with the little bit of play (screwing / welding the halves together would turn it into a spear during collision). I will start another thread to see if any of them work.

 

steering box:

 

Thanks. In my case the box is a fresh rebuild and seems to be play free. The 1990 firebird shaft I mentioned above developed the same problem after a few months. I ended up calling all over the country to find a new old stock shaft and found one at a vintage parts place in Wisconsin. Part number is 26010641 or 26010642. Not sure how often this happens in Thirdgens, maybe the Arizona heat plus dryness erodes the plastic potting sooner than other parts of the country.