Hey, my K5 has a very sloppy steering column. I've been trying to put it off replacing or repairing it, but now it's irritating me. The tilt part is broken and the wheel moves up and down as you push it. Any thoughts or solutions? (the helpful kind)
CK5
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Steering column Slop!
- Thread starter hammermachine
- Start date
common..
There was a write up on here how to do the repair somewhere,not sure if its a "sticky" post..it involves pulling the steering wheel,the lock plate and directional switch,and you have to use a torx bit (in most cases) to tighten the loose bolts holding the "u-joint" inside the colum to the part the wheel goes on..sometimes you can only get to 3 out of the 4 bolts,but tightening them is usually good enough to "fix" the problem...
I've owned a few trucks with sloppy tilt colums,and I swapped in a non tilt one I had instead--I never "tilted" the wheel on any of the trucks that had a tilt wheel anyway..my 79 C10 had a sloppy tilt colum,but I sold it before I got a chance to fool with it..it wasn't that loose,so I just ignored it..but I hear they can fall apart if its sloppy enough!..
..I've never done one myself,but have watched friends do theirs..it is a bit tricky to do without dropping the socket or screws..they taped the torx bit to the extention to prevent it from dropping down into the colum..
..
There was a write up on here how to do the repair somewhere,not sure if its a "sticky" post..it involves pulling the steering wheel,the lock plate and directional switch,and you have to use a torx bit (in most cases) to tighten the loose bolts holding the "u-joint" inside the colum to the part the wheel goes on..sometimes you can only get to 3 out of the 4 bolts,but tightening them is usually good enough to "fix" the problem...
I've owned a few trucks with sloppy tilt colums,and I swapped in a non tilt one I had instead--I never "tilted" the wheel on any of the trucks that had a tilt wheel anyway..my 79 C10 had a sloppy tilt colum,but I sold it before I got a chance to fool with it..it wasn't that loose,so I just ignored it..but I hear they can fall apart if its sloppy enough!..
..I've never done one myself,but have watched friends do theirs..it is a bit tricky to do without dropping the socket or screws..they taped the torx bit to the extention to prevent it from dropping down into the colum.. ..
grimjaw
1/2 ton status
I just had to do this last week to get the truck to pass inspection. The only problem i ran into was not enough slack in the wiring to get the body all the way off. I was able to tilt it down and slide the balljoint out of its socket enough to get to the bolts. Kind of a pain that made it take a lil longer, but the results were well worth it. With the tightening and fresh grease it feels like new again.
Tony
Tony
poinzey said:
1. If you unbolt the column from the dash.
2. Then pull it down alittle
3. Take the column to dash mount off the column.
4. Unhook the wire connector.
5. Pull the wire out of the black plastic holder.
6. Then you can slide the wires up the column a little more so you have more room to take the body off .
It takes a little bit longer but makes the job alot easier later.
Mike
I Just went through mine last month. Not for the wobble though. I broke the rack for the ignition switch. While I was there I did tighten the column bolts though. It comes back to having the right tools to make it easy. I've got the little doohicky that pulls the pivot pins out. Once you have those out you can pull the whole upper housing out of the way. If you do that you have to make sure you don't loose the bearings from the front and back sides. With the upper housing out of the way you can get to all 4 bolts without a problem.
