Re: DesertSy: It's Just a Driver
Worked on the steering column today. The bowl bolts were loose, the lock plate needed to be indexed after the Astro Steering shaft install, and it was dirty. I wanted to get it back in today so I could drive it back into the garage. I left it out last night because I quit with no column, and couldn't steer it. I didn't take pics during the dis-assembly, but these should be enough to show you what you're in for if you decide to tackle this task yourself.
Here's the level of dis-assembly I took it to. I didn't take apart anything more than what was necessary to get to the bowl bolts. The Helms manual is invaluable.
Here's the 4 bowl bolts. This is the 3rd 91 I've had these come loose in. Note the socket-head screw that replaced one that was missing. Bowl bolts are 1/4-20X1-1/2:
Here's some of the sub-assemblies. I took the shaft u-joint apart mostly to clean and re-grease it. It was much smoother with new grease.
These are the tilt-pivot pins. Little suckers are a bitch to remove. I used a 5mm screw (pictured in the left one) with a crescent wrench under the head to 'lever' it out of the hole.
To make this easier to work on, I clamped it to my work table. This was the smartest thing I did all day:
After the bowl bolts were tight with some loc-tite, I put the center shaft back in:
Install the tilt lever. Pulling on the tilt lever to pull the latches back out of the way, drop the tilt-housing over the inner bowl. The tilt latches pictured:
Line up the pins. Don't force anything. If it doesn't go easy, something isn't positioned correctly. Note the position of the dimmer switch rod in the lower pic. It exits
through the hole. Not outside. I had this wrong:
I used a big c-clamp to press the two pins back into the housing simultaneously:
Next, the tilt spring goes back in. Position the bowl in full-up tilt for lowest spring tension:
Use a Phillips screwdriver to push in, and turn and lock the retainer.this is simple:
Next the upper bowl goes on. I didn't take any pics. You have to juggle the wiper switch, cruise control wires, and dimmer rod all at the same time. Pay attention when you take it apart, and at least you'll have an idea of how it goes back together. This part IS fussy. Took me several attempts to get it. The cruise wire was blocking the dimmer rod. Once I moved that out of the way, it went right together. Three torx head screws hold the bowl in.
Then install the key cyl, and it's retainer bolt. Check the action. Install the key buzzer switch, then the turn sig switch.
Last thing is the metal arm that indexes into the turn sig switch, and lever. It should look like this when you're done:
These springs are for the turn signal cancel. They tend to break on high mileage vehicles. I robbed one from a take-out switch I had to replace a broken one. But they are available from Rock Auto. Hood may have them too:
After you put in the spring, the cancel cam goes on. Check the little key-slot on the contact sleeve, and the titty on the wire itself. Both of these tend to break if the horn button is pulled off carelessly and the wire is pulled out by force. These parts are OK to use. I had them in my stash. The ones on the truck were broken:
That's it for the pics. I ground a spline on the lock plate to index the steering wheel correctly. I loosely installed the wheel. I'll double-check the index when I can be sure the wheels are straight-ahead. It's back in the truck. The truck is back in the garage. This was a good day. Fussy, but I got it done:
Thanks for reading.
O....M....G!! Props to any of you who can take one of these apart, figure out the spaghetti, and put it back together. Wish i had the time and capacity to learn that.
