What the problem is, the tilt pivot is loose and needs to have the top half the column torn apart and tightened up. I have the complete write-up of how to do it saved on my harddrive /forums/images/graemlins/thumb.gif If you give me an email addy, I can email you the pics that go along with this /forums/images/graemlins/thumb.gif
Tilt wheel column fix!
OHHHH MAN! ! ! Your in for a fun job! ! ! I just got done doing this.
Here is the info that i got from old
posts, i believe it is from BIGBURB and DepDog:
Here is the infamous "GM tilt column loose problem" fix:
Disconnect the Battery, Tilt the column to the full UP position, P
ull the wheel
Remove the locking plate, the large spring & the bearing cover (Th
is comes off fine, but is a pain in
the butt to get back on so I made a tool to put it back on)
Disconnect the connectors for the turn signal switch, cruise and t
he "smart" swi tch
Remove three screws that hold down the turn signal switch
Gently pull the switch up and pullout of the housing folding down
and hang by harness
Remove the Ign Key buzzer switch and retainer clip
There is either a screw on the right side holding in the IGN KEY L
OCK or a slot in which you push a tab.
Remove the screw or push the tab and remove the Ign Lock Cylinder.
Most of us have been this far before into the tear-down.
Next there are three or four torx head screws that hold the housin
g onto the tilt bowl, remove them.
Return the turn signal switch back into the housing, do not put th
e screws back. This step is to give
you some play in the wiring
Gently pull up on the housing up and over the steering shaft. Tilt
ing the shaft down will help but it
puts the upper ball bearings in danger of popping out. The small c
over for the tilt handle, the plastic
push piece will all fall out
There will now be a black bowl exposed. It has the bearings for th
e short shaft. The Hi Beam actuator
rod will be coming through on the left side. There will also be a
small rod through the top parallel
with the floor. It is the sector shaft for the IGN Switch and has
a small gear on the left.
THIS IS IMPORTANT! ! THIS IS THE PART THAT IS SPRUNG LOADED! !
At the bottom is a small, about the size of a quarter, round silver
plug with a square cutout in the
center. This is the spring retainer. by tilting the column up most
of the load has been removed from the
spring. Take a #3 Phillips screw driver, put into the square hole.
The object is not to go through this
hole but to engage it. Push the plug down/in about 1/8 inch and tu
rn counter-clockwise. There are two
ears 180 degrees apart that retain the plug. REMEMBER IT IS SPRING
LOADED! ! Ease up until there is no
load and pull out.
The next step requires a small puller. I used small screws and vis
e-grips on one and a small crow bar on
the other one! ! They are in there pretty tight too! !
There are two pins 180 degrees apart on the sides of the bowl. The
se are the tilt pivot pins and they
need to be removed. Kent-Moore makes the special puller but I have
seen otqer folks put a small screw in
the hole and pull them out with Vise-grips. If the screws break yo
u are hosed! The pins are harden and
can't be drilled out if it gets screwed up.
Once the pins are out put the tilt lever back in. Pull like you wa
nt to tilt the column. This releases
the pawls from the retainer grooves.
While holding them released, gently pull the bowl up towards you.
The ball bearings are in danger of
popping out again as they are disengaged from the races.
You will notice that the upper shaft is connected to intermediate
shaft by a white plastic ball socket.
DO NOT BEND THIS TO 90 DEGREES OR IT WILL BECOME DISENGAGED! !
Slide this to one side and two of four torx head screws will be ex
posed. I use a ~" drive ~" socket on a
flex universal to gain access. This eliminates the danger of bendi
ng the tilt ball too much.
If it's real loose tighten one from each side diagonally, That way
the mechanism will seat and not bind.
I recommend that you put locktite on them! !
Going back together is just doing it in reverse with some extra st
eps.
Reposition the tilt bowl on the shaft, pull back on the lever and
slide on. Make sure the pawls engage
the retaining grooves. The rods down to both the starter switch an
d the headlamp dimmer need to be lined up.
Replace the tilt spring by depressing with a screw driver and turning
To time the start switch the small snap ring retaining the sector
gear, white or black plastic, and gear
needs to be removed
These will not be replaced until after the pivot pins are reset.
Install these pins with a gasket hammer, SMALL! You may need to ji
ggle the bowl by actuating the lever
disengaging the pawls
Now time the ign rod rack with the gear and actuate a few times to
make sure the Large cutout in the
gear for the ACCESSORY position is timed. The rod has a tit that h
as to go into the racks crescent
shaped area. This crescent shaped area allows the rod to be actaut
ed from any tilt position when the key
has been turned.
Slide the turn signal housing down over the bowl, aligning the sma
II tilt lever cover and headlight
dimmer actuator. Small daps of grease will help hold this in posit
ion while trying to put it all
together
The rest is put together as taken apart.
The Ign lock cyl goes in before the buzzer switch. The small tab o
n the lock cyl that actuates this
switch needs to be held up in the close position. The IGN key need
s to be out of the cyl for this to
happen. Small dabs of grease will hold this up during assembly
Another tip:
Loosen the two nuts, maybe three that hold the column up to the da
sh frame. They are either 17mm or 1Smm
bolt heads. This will give you a little more play in the wiring.
GM Tilt Column Fix
INTRODUCTION
Got a loose, floppy tilt steering column? You don't need to sell a
pint of blood and take it
to the dealer, it can be done in the comfort of your own driveway,
for a very small
investment in tools and parts. You can expect to spend around 3 ho
~ urs doing this job,
1!" possibly less, depending on your luck. I typically replace only on
\c, e part when I do these, I
toss the factory lockring and put a 10 cent 5/8" C-clip in it's pI
ace. You should also have a
tube of white lithium grease, red LocTite, and a can of your prefe
rred cleaning solvent
handy. I was essentially rebuilding my column in these photos, so
mine is torn apart more
than you should have to just to tighten it.
There are a couple of specialty tools that will make this job much
easier, a steering wheel
lockplate remover, an E8 external Torx socket, and a pin puller. I
don't use the pin puller,
I use a pair of 45° bent needlenose pliers and an 8-32 machine scr
ew to pry them out. If
you go this route, make sure to use a good quality screw, or else
you will have a whole
new problem on your hands. (Photo #1)
PREP
Disconnect the battery, or else in addition to risking shorting so
me thing out, you will also
be blasting the horn while you open the column up, and probably tu
rning the hazard
flashers on for the duration of the repair.
GETTING TO WORK
Tilt the column to the full UP position, remove the tilt lever, an
d then pull the wheel. You
will now be staring at the dreaded lockplate. (Photo #2) Pop off the
plastic cover, then
thread the lockplate remover onto the column stem, (Photo #2A) and
tighten the nut on
the tool to compress the plate. Pull the lockring with a pick or s
mall screwdriver, then
slowly release the lockplate remover, until you feel no tension in
it. remove the tool, and
pull off the lockplate, spring, and horn contact. Now you should b
e looking at the turn
signal switch -remove the four Phillips head screws holding it in
, and the hazard flasher
knob. Gently pull the switch up, and it should come out far enough
to allow you to open
the column up the rest of the way. If it fails to come out further
than an inch or two, you
will have to go underneath the dash and unplug the harness (mounte
don the right hand
side of the column -it will pop right off of the brackets holding
it) .(photo #3)
Now you should remove the ignition buzzer switch and it's retainin
9 clip -I left mine out
entirely since I tossed the buzzer ages ago, and remove the screw
holding the ignition
cylinder in place. Remove the 3 Torx screws (T30) holding the hous
ing onto the tilt bowl.
(photo 4) If you had to unplug the switch to gain enough slack to
get the switch out,
ignore the next step, and jump to the next paragraph, if you didn'
t, place the switch back
into the housing, and gently pull the housing and switch over the
housing as a unit. At this
point the upper ball bearings will want to fallout, and if they d
0, don't panic -just gather
them all up and place in a paper cup or similar container to save
for later.
If you did unplug the signal switch, just pull some slack and then
gently pull the upper
housing back. Now the small cover housing the tilt lever, and the
push cam for the
dimmer switch will fallout. (photo 5)
You will now have exposed a black "bowl", this contains the lower
bearings, along with
the sector shaft for the ignition, and the steering wheel lock pin.(photo 6)
Go ahead and
remove the screw holding the lock pin spring, the sector gear and
pin- having these out
will make the job of timing the ignition much easier during reasse
mbly. This is the part that
is spring loaded -at the bottom of the column, you will see a rou
nd piece, about the size
of a quarter with a square hole in the middle. Push a #3 Phillips
screwdriver in the hole,
and compress it about 1/8" while turning it 900 counter-clockwise.
Slowly ease up on it
until you feel no more tension and remove the spring. (photos 7 &
8)
Now you are at the dreaded pins -these are almost a personal matt
er, since everyone has
their own way of removing them. My pliers and machine screw have n
ever failed yet, but
you may prefer a slide hammer and 8-32 screw. In the photo I screw
ed in a stud just to
illustrate the location, the rest is up to you. (photo 9)
Once the pins are out, put the tilt lever back in, and pull back o
n it to release the pawls
holding the bowl in place. Gently pull the bowl over the steering
shaft, and again watch for
bearings falling out. You will now see a large plastic ball socket
-DO NOT BEND THIS
TO 90 DEGREES OR IT WILL BECOME DISENGAGED. You will now see the 4
E-8
screws that caused this problem in the first place. Remove one, gi
ve it a dose of Loctite,
and replace -repeat this process in an "X" pattern until all 4 ar
e done. The steering shaft
ball socket will obscure either the upper or lower screws, but it
will move right out of the
way. (photo 10&11)
Now is a good time to take a short break- the fumes from Loctite w
ill attack some
plastics, so it is a good idea to give 10-15 minutes for the the L
octite to dry and air out
before reassembly.
Going back together is basically just doing it in reverse, with a
few extra steps thrown in.
Give the bearings in the bowl a nice coating of sticky disc brake
wheel bearing grease, it's
good for the bearings, and helps them stay put during reassembly.
Reposition the bowl on
the shaft, pull back the tilt lever and slide it on. Make sure tha
t the headlight dimmer rod,
and the ignition rod are lined up, as well as the pin holes. Tap i
n the pins with a small
gasket hammer, you may need to jiggle the bowl a little to get the
pins lined up and driven
in.
Now time the ignition rack with the gear, and actuate a few times
to make sure that the
large cutout for the accessory position is timed. While you are he
re, give the rack, gear
and lock pin a light coating of white grease. The ignition rod sho
uld ride in the large,
crescent shaped groove in the rack, this allows the switch to work
in any tilt position. Test
the ignition in a few different tilt positions and remove the tilt
lever again.
Now, give the upper bearings a grease job, as before with the lowe
r bearings. Slide the
turn signal housing back over the shaft and onto the bowl, alignin
g the tilt lever cover and
dimmer actuator cam. Another dab of wheel bearing grease will help
hold everything in
position.
If your bearings came apart, get a flat surface to work on, and ge
ntly push them back into
the plastic retainer, with a thick coating of wheel bearing grease
to hold everything in
place. Gently slip the bearing over the shaft, and seat the bearin
gs into the race on the turn
signal housing. Place the ignition lock cylinder back into the hou
sing and remove the key,
now replace the buzzer switch.
The rest goes back as removed, except for the lock ring which shou
ld be replaced with a
newone.
I hope this article was of help, there's alot of people out there
who pretend that this job is
too difficult to be done at home, and charge upwards of $200 to do
it for you. It's really
easy after you've done it a time or two, just take your time, and
don't let it get you too
frustrated.
The tools definately needed are the steering wheel puller and the
compressor. Then you can use a 8-32
Machine screw and try to pull it out with that and vice grips, but
it didn't work for me. I just kept
bending screws, so i went to the auto parts store and bought the damn
tool. Cost about $30 and it's the
size of my pinky! ! ! ! But the damn thing worked! ! ! My advice is to
be patient and remember where
everything goes! ! ! Good luck! ! !
