Diagnose & Repair Steering Play/Rattle

[Wikano]

The "3 pound hammer mod" worked well enough for me to reduce the steering play. The tight steering has held up for a couple of months now.

 

[nwebb01]

I went with [MENTION=116387]Unner[/MENTION]s fix. I'm very surprised with the results. Should have done this a long time ago. It helps if you take off the trim piece below the steering wheel.

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[scottndsky]

Did this to mine today using JB Weld. Seems to be quite strong and has completely eliminated the play in the steering and the clunk going over bumps. Drives like a new one...loving it!!!

We used JB Weld as well. I wanted to get it down into the cervices of the slip joint, so I built a moat by wrapping the lower piece with masking tape while letting it overhang the end a little. Then I filled the resulting cavity with JB Weld, let it sit 24 hours, then removed the tape. See pictures below. I may have overdone it with the JB Weld. The shaft seems pretty stout now. It’s possible that I completely defeated the collapsing feature of the slip joint. I'm guessing the JB Weld won't sheer or crack easily if an accident compressed the shaft.

I spent probably 20 minutes messing with the stupid clamshell over the steering column because it wouldn't let go and I didn't want to break it.

OMG! We spent nearly an hour poking around on that shell trying not to damage it or break it. It wasn't clear where the latches were, or where exactly to poke to get the two halves to separate. Hot Tip: the two screw holes on the front are the secret to success. Right below those screws is where the top half hooks to the bottom half. Those two screws go through long tabs that come down from the top half. After removing those screws, get a small flat-head screwdriver in each hole. Go past the bottom shell but catch the edge of holes in those tabs. If you do it right, you can push the tabs backwards (towards the dash) and get them to release their grip on the bottom shell. Hopefully that makes sense. We still ended up breaking one of the tiny plastic pins on the bottom shell between the tilt lever and the dash. A little epoxy secured that back in place.

The result is nothing less than amazing. We went ahead with the shim mod in the tilt ball joint, but that probably wasn’t necessary. Our slip joint had a ton of play in it before welding it.

 

[RMGulchin1]

Anyone know of someone in the Denver/Boulder CO area who could assist with this?

Also curious about just replacing that part of the shaft - would that make sense?

 

[scottndsky]

Just a follow up here... The JB Weld held up for a while, but now the play has returned. I haven't pulled the steering column out yet, but I suspect the JB Weld just wasn't up the task.