Telescoping steering wheel

ggfrank21

ggfrank21

Registered
On my 98 the telescoping steering has side to side play in it. Is there a diagramed exploded view if the steering color. I did have a broken plastic peace and a baring fall out. I want to see what parts I need to get, if ford still has the parts or do I need to go to a wrecking yard.
 
If you still have all the parts that fell out, you can repair it yourself.....Go to auto zones web site. They have manuals there.....
 
my lower bearings/plastic slide fell out one day..Didnt affect anything so i left it out. I still kept it so i ever have to dig in there again i'll prob put it back in. Side to side might be the top ones?idk

Edit: i manually adjusted the in/out(broken), up/down(worked then disconnected the motors so it didnt break down on me..I'm not sure how not haveing the bearings/slide in there will effect that aspect of it.
 
Last edited:
Do NOT drive it with the system energised as it could drop the other bearings in there and you could lose steering control.....Guess you're OK with the electrical disconnected tho....
 
a member on another forum had bearings fall out of his column and one night he turned abruptly and the column came apart in his hands. when bearings fall out of something that you use to steer the car, you are brave as hell if you continue to use it without fixing it. if your wheel bearing dropped a few pieces out of it would you keep driving it lol??? you need to fix or replace the column, but you ARE NOT getting any help from ford as far as parts for the column!
 
steercol1sm.gif


The part callout is 3F795. There's one on top and one on the bottom of the column. As far as I know they're no longer available and the few people who have them aren't giving them up.

column2.jpg


BTW, I'm with Jamie on this. You shouldn't be driving around with the track bearing broke or missing. If your car has the cable restraint recall done, that'll keep the column from coming out in your hands, but it'll still wobble around which isn't safe.
 
Last edited:
its actually not a hard job, for a new member at that time and never doing something like this before, I pulled that column out like 6 times and feel I may have become an expert with it, (replacing the clockspring too, did that like 4 times) lol. My 3b628 and 3f789 which are the top and bottoms of that bearing piece came off and were shifted around. It was a pretty easy fix but a pain in the ass at first when I didn't know what it was supposed to look like. When I got the bearing pieces from Mad1stGen, it all made sense and came together nicely.
 
Ok, i'll take back what i said before..I went and looked at the part that fell out of the wheel..I guess only 2/3's of it broke thus leaving the other 1/3 in there..Prob why there no shifting..So i tore the colum down and went to work..Only took me 15min to get the peice that fell off back in the lower sliding portion.. I guess when i manually adjusted the in/out up/down last year i didnt place the bearings/slider inside the 2 metal pins on the lower slider rail that keep it from falling out..All is well now. And while i was in there i was able to fix my colum cover (part that is by the hazards)..It was alighned up wrong after i took the colum out the first time.. Fixed it, new screws and alittle super glue to fix acouple tabs that were stressing...I'm happy..
 
Last edited:
I love how Jamie is so blunt! Makes for good reading because he says what we are all thinking, haha.
 
not really, they were recalled back in the day for over travel limiter cables to be installed, that solved the problem, most people ignored the recall though, just like the ones who ignore the cruise switch recall and let the car go up in flames. the design isnt any worse than the cheap valve springs used on gen ones that randomly let rocker arms fall off the cylinder heads!!!!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top