Hey y'all. Been lurking for a while but finally decided to register and post cause I'm at a loss.

So I recently bought a '91 RS cause I've wanted one forever, but it's not without it's problems due to age I suppose. One of my main problems is a wobbly steering wheel. Thanks to the forum, I figured it was the tilt mechanism, so I disassembled the column and tightened the 4 bolts. They were only barely loose though. However, when I was disassembling the column I noticed the upper bearing was jacked. So I managed to find a bearing in an old column I had laying around and swapped them out.

Anyway, after I got it all back together the problem still remains. The wheel moves a good inch in any direction. Like the bearing is shot still. So I'm lost as to what to do. It's almost like the bearing is coming apart under the pressure of the lock plate.

What I'm wondering is if anyone has a fix for it? I'm half tempted to take the races out and up to a machine shop and have them mill me out a solid bushing to put in it's place and see if that won't hold the wheel in proper alignment without flopping all over the place. I need to get the car inspected and as is I don't think it'll pass, so I've got to get this figured out. Any advice?

 

They have some play in them new, but if it racked up a lot of millage with the tilt loose and messed up the shaft bearings etc it might of also warn the mounting areas for the tilt mech and bearing races. Its been years since I fixed mine and I do recall having to torque down on it like crazy. You can probably find a decent replacement in the junkyard depending on where you live. Not sure if play in the steering column would fail an inspection.

is the play all in the steering shaft and tilt mech or could it simply be loose under the dashboard or firewall?

 

Everything from ignition cylinder back feels solid. But I can literally grab the end of the input shaft where the wheel splines are and move it in any direction substantially and it's made worse when the wheel is on.

I've checked salvage yards but haven't found much yet. I don't mind replacing the column just don't want to develope the same problem in a replacement in another year after the swap. But it may be about the same price as having a custom machined bushing made. So idk.

 

Is the spring that goes under the turn signal cancelling cam missing? 9th pic, the big spring on the shaft that the steering wheel attaches to: http://www.fieros.de/en/articles/steering.html

Sounds like something in the vicinity of that column bearing in the tilting section is missing.

 

Was thinking the same thing.Fits behind the canceling cam.That bearing will not stay in place w/out that spring.

 

The spring is in place. I replaced it with the bearing just in case and it still does it. I've been building the motor that's going in the car so I haven't torn back into the column yet, but I'm still at a loss as to the cause.