alright, i got a new column to get all the parts off of to replace what was damaged on mine from a break in. i took off the bolt that holds the steering wheel, popped off the little c clip and took off the big plastic turn signal thing. now theres a metal "cog" with a bunch of indents on it, which the pin pops into to lock your car into place. now do i remove this? i need to take off EVERYTHING because i need to get the plastic piece off, was well as the lock cylinder. thx

 

the ring im trying to remove is nbr 5 in this pic
http://shbox.com/1/steering_column_exploded.jpg

 

The "turn signal" piece you refer to is actually your airbag coil. Take great care to read the manual on properly re-installing it. Improper reinstallation will result in failure of the airbag system.

The lock plate is removed using a special compression tool. It can be purchased at most large auto parts places.

Be ready for some fun. The inside of a steering column is not for the faint of heart. I like to call it a 3D jigsaw puzzle. I had to recently strip mine down completely to fix some play that was in the tilt mechanism. Feel free to call on me if you have any questions. I can pretty much rebuild one of them with my eyes shut now. It requires a ton of patience and finesse. The deeper you dig into it, the more messed up it gets.

Good luck.

If you are not really ready to tackle it, I strongly suggest just swapping in an entire new column.

 

special tool?? it just took a few hours and some screw drivers now the only thing i can't figure out is how to take out the tilt mechanism, so i can get that bottom plastic tube thing out (which the also broke)

 

LOL... I've done it that way too. What a PITA. It took two of us though. One person pushing like hell on the plate and onother with screwdrivers prying out the little metal ring. If you did it that way alone, I'm impressed.

To get out the tilt mechanism you will need to remove the spring and pull the pins.

To remove the spring, find the spring cap. It is round bright metal with a square hole in it. Put the column in the full tilt position to relieve as much pressure off the spring as possible. Put a large flat blade screwdriver in the square hole and push it in hard. The spring cap will go in about 1/2 inch then you can rotate it 1/4 turn couterclockwise and it will release the spring.

next remove the pivot pins. They look like little buttons with threaded holes in them, one on each side of the column. Obtain a screw with matching thread and put it in until it bottoms out. Clam a vice grips plyers on the screw with about 1/4 inch between the snout of the plyers and the side of the column. Use a huge screwdriver to pry between the column and the nose of the plyers to push the pin out. They are press fit, and can be hard to push out. Be carefull not to break off the screw you threaded into the pin.


Once the pins are out, pull the tilt lever and the whole thing will slide apart.

 

how do u take the lower plastic shroud off?

 

That is the only part I didnt remove. I'm guessing that once you completely remove the upper column, the plastic shroud slides off upwards? I looked at it really closely and it was not obvious how it came off.

 

i broke one of the screws in the pin the first 2 on the replacement came out fine, first one on the car came out fine. last one snapped right off

 

can you use of the pins from the replacement column? drill out the one you broke the screw off in.

Why couldnt you just use the entire replacement column in its entirety?

 

because i didn't think that the damage was to the extent that it was. i thought i was just going to need the top plastic shroud and the ignition cylinder..... how difficult is it to replace the whole column? i can just stick all the parts back onto it and swap columns...

 

In that case I'd just swap columns. The only consideration is if the replacement is from an auto or manual transmission car.

I pulled mine out completely. It wasnt that hard. 2 bolts hold it to the bottom of the dash, 3 bolts at the firewall and 1 bolt under the hood at the steering joint. Unplug everything and yank it.

If you have an auto, you'll need to deal with the shifter lock cable. Mine is a stick so I'm not sure how that works. Unplugging the ignition switch is a trick. It is a two part plug. The part forward most has to come out first. PITA.

 

What is the status on this??

 

I have a steering wheel problem too, When im driving my car I can pull the steering wheel down and to the left. I looked at the steering coulum from the passanger side and the only part thats moving to the left and down is the tilt adjustment part up to the steering wheel (not the shaft to the rag joint). It seems like there is something loose.

can this looseness get tightened up or will the column need replacing?

 

Just to clear up a few things..

after the air bag clock spring is removed that "cog plate" your looking at is called a locking plate. there is something called a Lock plate took that will alow the plate to be pressed down exposing the clip that needs to be removed. after that the lock plate will slide off. after all that turn sig cancel can be removed. Then the 3 screws holding the trun signal switch and the one holding the turn signal lever arm come off and the switch pulls through. then you have access to the key chime contatcts which will pull stright out (number 16) then with the 2 wire connetor for thekey tumber umpluged just remove the long bolt (number 18) and then the key switch comes right out.

Snap on sells a (pivot pin remover) that is needed to remove the tilt piviot pins. but honeslty to replace that cover your looking at a very very large mess. the spring retainer has to come out and once all that it out it;s a big PITA to gett everything back together. The arm for the dimmer rod is especialy agrevating..


your truely better off just slaping a new coulum in there. but things to think of... your gonna need the right key and the resister pellet might not be the same. if the airbag was deployed then the clock spring also needs to be repalced.