steering collumn problem

[ramonesfreak]

hi..ive been trying to figure out what is wrong with my steering collumn.

the 2nd day i had the car..something odd happened to the steering. i cant really explain it..other than there was some slight play and crunching.

i quickly ordered and installed the bearing bushing metal sleeve thing.

it did not help at all.

im inspecting it closely tonight and here is what i observe.

with the car parked and off...if i turn the wheel a little to the right or left...i hear crunching that is loud....i also feel a rubbing in the dash, just to the right of the ignition that occurrs simultaneously with the turning of the wheel. I also see and feel a slight bit of movement up and down if i push on the wheel. this is driving me nuts. is there a 2nd bearing that has a plastic bushing that is further in the collumn that i can see or fix myself?

thanks

[sseto911]

I started experiencing the same thing last week...I can't find where is coming from and it's driving me nuts too! My solution, call jimmy deering at mobile works. Not fixed yet but I feel better knowing that it can and will be fixed with cash (much less headache)

[ramonesfreak]

im not noticing it so much after a few weeks now. good luck

[mca]

Had the same thing about a year ago - crunching noise would occur when turning.

part# 928-347-739-02-M100 (Steering Wheel Repair Sleeve)

[ramonesfreak]

hi mca. we have the same colour car!
anyway, as i mentioned at the beginning, i installed the repair sleeve and my problem remained. for some reason, im not really noticing anything wrong now. i dripped a ton of very thin oil down the steering shaft..perhaps that helped a little, or its all in my head.

[jbrand540]

Have you inspected the lower steering bushing? If the bearings in that went I can see getting a crunching noise? Pretty easy to check just undo the U-joint in the smugglers box and the clamp that holds the bearing and you can slide it up. You could also spin it right on the shaft with your hand and see if it makes noise. Do you have any feedback through the steering column?

[jbrand540]

Sometimes it can be hard to track down where the sound is originating as it can transfer throught the steering shaft. The bearing I am refering to is #23 in the diagram.

[ramonesfreak]

i checked the u-joint in the smugglers box and packed it with grease...thats all i did. im new to working on cars and i didnt want to mess anything up..i didnt see a clamp but i can look again.

i was getting terrible crunching but only when the car was parked..but that i would try to turn the wheel very much..but just a little left and right movement a few inches produced the sound.

its not bothering me anymore though. its a mystery to me and probably will remain so

[jbrand540]

Picture did not come through for some reason. I will try here again. The clamp I am referring to is directly below the lower u-joint with to allen bolts holding it on.