Telescoping Steering Wheel Fixed

scotty96lsc

scotty96lsc

Registered
I had a lot of play in my steering wheel column. As I had posted earlier,http://www.lincolnsclub.org/forum/d...opic_id=1854&mesg_id=1854&listing_type=search the white-plastic rails that have the ball bearings broke. This caused the metal rails that they slide on to come loose. Without that gap taken up, the column had a lot of play.
Well you know me, my mechanical ability is limited to beer opening and license plate holder adjusting. So my neighbor, the Ford mechanic, did it for me. He owes me after all since I built our adjoining fence, well I mean my wife did.
Simple job all in all from what I could tell. The whole job took an 1.5 hours. parts were $15 -- the two white plastic rails. The toughest part was fixing the metal rails. One of the little tabs was broke on the cover plate which caused that rail to have way too much play. A domino affect from there. He put a new tab on. My job was to ensure the steering wheel didn't spin to much to screw up the spring in it. Now the column is sturdy as a brick house.
Thanks to Mark for the pics and diagram.
 
RE: Telescoping Steering Wheel Fixed

Congratulations, Scott! I have this same task in front of me now. I did not look at Mark's post yet, but I suspect that I will need to buy the plastic rails, and the little tabs. Would you happen to have the part numbers for the items you replaced? I have my wheel retracted all the way now, and have easy entry turned off, so it is not as bad. Thanks.
 
RE: Telescoping Steering Wheel Fixed

Mike
Should be in the diagram. I just replaced the two plastic, white rails with the ball bearings in them.
 
RE: Telescoping Steering Wheel Fixed

good job man, that was the biggest thing i hated about the mark. Steering play and vibration.
 
RE: Telescoping Steering Wheel Fixed

I've been having some play in my steering lately but not until my brother drove it and used the steering wheel to pull himself out of the car did I think it was a big deal. Right now, the steering column moves side to side at least a few inches.
I read this and Mark's post and got the parts in yesterday so I'm gonna tackle the job this weekend. I have Leo's diagrams on how to take off the steering column, but is there anything else I should be aware of? Thanks guys.
 
RE: Telescoping Steering Wheel Fixed

The biggest thing was making sure not to screw up the spring in the steering wheel. Keep the steering wheel from spinnig and you should be ok. The whole job took about 1.5 hours. Good luck.
 
RE: Telescoping Steering Wheel Fixed

I would suggest installing the kit with the column travel-limit cables (if of course, you don't already have it!). I can't remember the actual name of the kit right now, but there is a kit that should be installed to prevent the column from extending too far. I believe the lack of this kit is what caused my own steering column to break (in the same way yours did).
 
RE: Telescoping Steering Wheel Fixed

Thanks for the replies guys. I was able to repair my steering column. Its solid now.
I had to take it all apart. The little plastic parts with ball bearing were not broken, they had just fallen off the tracks and I put them back in. I'll start a new post with a couple of pics I snapped, tomorrow.

I didn't install the travel-limit cables, I'll look it up since mine doesn't have them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top