Noticed last night on drive home from work that my steering wheel is wobbly a little bit. It initially felt to me like the nut was loose but when i got home and put a socket on it, it was tight. Unfortunately I didn't have time to yank off the wheel for further inspection but have the steering shaft bearing gone out on other members cars? I would think a steering column bearing would last for eternity.

Oh Well, this is just more thing to fix, along with my hi/low beam switch that has a mind of its own, and my wipers that don't return to rest position automatically.

Tom

 

I mean you only have to look back a total of about 6 threads

 

The plastic steering wheel bushing is broken. You can get replacements from one of our sponsors. The aftermarket version is great. Cheap to buy, takes about a half hour to install.

 

Thanks for the info, will look up the part.

Sorry bout that, no I didn't search.. I was venting as much as I was asking. I like my car but some days i do cringe..... Which reminds me, I need to fix the heater box valves before it gets cold out...

Tom

 

these things have heat ?

 

You will most likely only need the sleeve, which will take only seconds to install once the wheel is removed. If you need to replace the whole bearing that is a different story. It's the plastice part of the bearing that ****s the bed. Stupid design. sleeve is $15 from either Pelican or Performance. Others will tell you fix with a shaving cream can cap...... While I applaud their ingenuity, I would swing the 15 clams for the right part.....

 

From what I have found, there is a fair amount of variation in the steering wheel shaft, both from point to point on the same shaft, and from one steering column to another. I suspect but do not know for sure, that the inner plastic bushing is a crushable part that is designed to compensate for the variations in tolerance while offering a good firm fit that is needed for the steering shaft to ride on the ball bearings.

The trick is to restore the ball bearing action without causing wear on the steering wheel shaft. This is difficult to do. I think the 928 sleeve is pretty close, but needs to be slightly thicker to do the job.

 

I'll probably yank the wheel this weekend and if it's the inner plastic spacer, i'll order one of those updated ones listed in the other thread. Although, I have a mini lathe, maybe I could take a crack at making one out of aluminum. I'd probably still have a wobbley wheel cause the lathe is from harbor freight and the run out is not ideal in my opinion.

Tom

 

I just removed the metal sleeve and put the plastic "support" for the steering bearing...much better as it gets rid of that slight play the metal sleeve gives you. Pelican offers it too...its 30 bucks

 

I got into a tinkering mood today and yanked the wheel and sure enough the plastic bushing was chunked apart. Got to measuring and ended up taking a piece of copper 1/2" tubing, actually it was 1/2"ID because it was a joint, cut it to little over 1/2" long, spun it down a little with a file and pushed it in and now I have a make shift spacer. Will try it out for a while, if it bombs, i'll just buy the one from Pelican. I also got to messing with the high/low beam issue and a little bend here, tweak there, no more flakey high beams(least for now).

Tom