Mike in CO

I just bought second 968 coupe (this one is a '93). I took it for a drive yesterday, and noticed that the brakes felt kind of glazed over. So I got the car moving at a pretty good clip, applied the brakes good and hard - - and the horn started beeping, and wouldn't stop!

I was only about a mile from home, so I turned around and headed back, and by the time I got home the horns had mostly stopped. However, I did determine that the problem was dependent on wheel position. It would go on and off as I turned the wheel.

So.... I removed the airbag and the wheel, and everything looked fine. I removed the brush contact that actually makes the horn work, put the steering wheel back on, and the horn started beeping again. This definitely shouldn't have been happening!

Long story short, the problem is that the wheel itself was touching the sensor that is attached to the column. When I hit the brakes I pushed against the steering wheel and the steering column apparently moved. Now I can push and pull the steering column in and out of its housing a little bit. I'd estimate that there is about three-eighths of an inch of in and out (longitudinal, not lateral) play in the column. If I push the wheel away from me, the horn beeps, and if I pull it back, it stops.

My other 968 doesn't have any longitudinal play in the steering column at all. PET and the shop manuals don't seem to provide much insight regarding how to eliminate this in-and-out play. Any ideas?

Thanks,

Mike

Darth Coupe

Sounds like the clamp that keeps the wheel from sliding back and forth is not as tight as it needs to be. You will need a 8mm socket and some extensions to get to it. You will need to get to a nut on the clamp under the steering column. Check into some of the steering wheel replacement guides and the one on Tom Pultz's 944 S2 site. I think if you tighten that nut down as hard as you can it you will solve your problem of the wheel moving. Good luck.

Mike in CO

Hmmm - interesting. I will take a look. Something I have noticed after my first post is that if I pull back on the wheel abruptly, it will "thud" into some sort of hard stop. But if I push in abruptly, it just kind of pushes in and comes to a softer stop.

Also, the turn signals no longer cancel automatically after a turn.

Mike in CO

I don't think this is the problem. His article made it sound like the clamp actually keeps the multi-function switch assembly in place in place on the steering column, rather than clamping the steering column itself in place.

What I am experiencing is that the inner shaft of the steering column (which the steering wheel is attached to) is sliding in and out within the outer column, which seems very tightly fixed in place.

Darth Coupe

Hmm, interesting. The clamp I was referring to was the same clamp for the multi-funtion switch. My experience was when I would turn the wheel the horn or turn signals that are on the multi-function switch would not work when the clamp was not tightened down. Though if your spline shaft is sliding out, that would create the same results.

I do not have experience with the spline shaft coming out. Could the shaft be broken in the steering column somewhere? Does the car turn well? I hope this issue surfaces for you soon and it is somthing easy to fix. Good Luck.

Mike in CO

I looked again, and the steering wheel shaft itself is what is sliding in and out of the bearing collar. If I look under the dash, down near the pedals, I can see it actually moving longitudinally at the point where it goes through the firewall.

I need to get under the car and figure out what the steering wheel shaft connects to. Something is supposed to be holding it in place longitudinally, and it is either loose or broken. It is located either under the car where the shaft connects to whatever it connects to, or else it is in the long column with the bearing(s) in it that is located under the dash. I'll post what I eventually find.

Darth Coupe

I could see where the shaft comes out of the fire wall under the clutch master cylinder when I was replacing it. It was very gunked up and I was considering cleaning and oiling. There is a sort of universal swivel joint there, perhaps one of the pins is broken there?

Mike in CO

Looking at the shop manual again, I strongly suspect the problem is something loose inside the bearing collar that is clamped to the underside of the dash. I will definitely check all other possible alternatives first however, as that part looks to be a major pain to remove/replace.

flash968

as darth says, there is a shaft with a u-joint on each end - it is a common wear item responsible for steering play, though usually side to side, and frequently overlooked

Mike in CO

I've made progress. There is a circlip that snaps into a slot at the top of the steering shaft just beneath where the splines begin. This circlip appears to be intended to prevent the shaft from sliding down through the steering tube. (During disassembly, removal of this clip is necessary in order to facilitate removal of the shaft from the steering tube.) The circlip is item 20 in the image below.



This clip apparently popped out of its slot when I pushed against the wheel while braking hard. This allowed the shaft to move, allowing the steering wheel to touch the horn contact, causing the horn to beep incessantly, etc.

I reset the circlip and it held briefly, but when I gave the wheel a good shove, it popped out again. I am going to get a new circlip and see if that solves the problem. If not, I guess I may need to replace the shaft.

(This car will see a significant amount of track time, so simply trying to be careful not to push against the wheel is not a practical option).

flash968

wow - bummer - how tough is it to get the shaft out of there if the new clip doesn't fix it?

Mike in CO

Not pretty. For anti-theft reasons (I think) both of the #6 bolts and the #8 bolt (refer to diagram above) are shear bolts. The heads are sheared off once the bolts are torqued into place. The procedure is to remove the lower dashboard panels, and then these bolts need to be either drilled out or chiselled off. Then the switch cluster can be removed, and the tube and shaft can be removed and separated.

I am praying that a new circlip does the trick.

flash968

ouch - best of luck - maybe a modification of the shaft, or addition of a component, to hold the clip if that doesn't work?

Mike in CO

I may be able to rig up a spacer I can slide onto the shaft between the circlip and the wheel. I think that would do the trick, but then the wheel wouldn't have any "give" in an accident.

flash968

sure it would - the breakaway feature is at the u-joints - that was part of the impact safety thing that came in at the same time as the 5 mph bumpers