Wasn't sure if this was the right place to ask this or not...Just test drove a 89 RS in fair/decent conditon. My question is this: The steering column had kind of a side to side ( R to L ) movement in it. Almost like there was a pin or some kind of support missing/ broken on one side. I mean, when you held the steering wheel, you could move the whole steering wheel and column to one side by probably a couple inches or so. Anyone had this happen? or know what this could be? Car drove fine, but this problem concerned me a bit. Thanks for the help.

 

theres a pin the tilt on the steering rotates on.


if you break the plastic bushing that surrounds that pin, it'll have slop like that...

 

could be the supports under the column just loose. couple of nuts down there...

 

my fiero did the same thing and it was 4 torx bolts that were loose inside the column. Tore it apart was a major pita and then replaced the whole column.

 

The few cars in the past we had problems with it was just the bolts had worked loose, only had 1 car in HS that actually had a broken bushing.

Regardless, if your not mechanically inclined and equipped with a little more advanced set of tools (more than a cresent wrench and pliers you might be better of taking it in to a shop if you buy the car. It's not a hard task, just ALOT of things inside there to disasemble and put back into place.

 

did it have about the same amount of up & down play in it? if up & down play is normal, its probably just the nuts under the dash.
if it has about the same amount up & down as side to side, odds are its the 4 torx bolts firebird45331 mentioned, although the bearings could also cause it.

i have never seen 1 that just had side to side play with out almost the same amount of up & down play except when the nuts under the dash were loose.

 

And if you are really curious, Vader posted up directions and pictures on how to fix it... though I can't stand to open those POS up. -shudder-

 

I'll never tear another steering column apart again.

 

is that from a previous experience or you bought the car and said this?

 

It's kind of hard to explain...the whole steering column allowed you to move it to the left. If you pushed forward on the left side of the steering wheel...the whole thing moved left and in. Made it very uneasy to drive. I was thinking the steering would fail on the vehicle. I'm not going to purchase the car in any event. It had some other issues. I'm still looking for a decent 3rd gen here in Minnesota. Would love to find one. I've responded to several for sale ads on this site, for some reasonably local sellers, and it seems like no one is checking their ads or messages. I'll keep trying. Thanks for the info.

 

Then it's loose inside. It's actually not hard at all to fix if you have the correct tools harbor freight has cheapo pullers and compressors.

 

need a steering wheel puller, spring compressor, a slide hammer, It was a pain, I thought it was worse than pulling a motor. The bearings fell out and rolled everywhere. just a pita