Scratching sound when I turn the wheel?
 

Today while maneuvering in my driveway in my 1974 on my way to do battle with some twisty roads, I noticed a sandpaper like sound when ever I turn the wheel. I never noticed it before and you know how your first few drives are after major restoration, every little sound gets scrutiny. Any ideas?

There is a bushing that gets replaced in the steering cloumn.

If it's from outside the car it may be front brake pads? Worn or a stone chip in there?

Thanks, Bill, you can definitely hear it in the steering column like it is right under the turn signal switch.

There is also a little copper 'finger' contact for the horn that occasionally gets misaligned and makes noise.

could be just the clamshell

Mine was the clamshell. I backed out the fasteners and repositioned them slightly.No more drag. No more noise.

Ken

I had the same thing…scratching directly correlated to steering wheel movement. It seemed to come from right under the horn pad. A few days later…BLAMO! The little plastic sleeve/bushing turned itself into a bushing salad. Major slop ensued. I ordered the Mitch Leland column bushing from our host and in 20 minutes it was better than new.

Okay Gentelmen, here is the fix.

If your bearings intact and your OEM sleeve did not fall apart.

Every year or so, I found myself removing my steering wheel to polish the horn switch ( aka wiper switch ) and the horn ring on the wheel. Very annoying to say the least, then one day I was looking closely and found the ring itself was warped, due to all the years on the road over 280K miles on the clock.

Ordered a new ring for my 930 wheel, Finally Fix forever, or at least another 150-200K miles.

Jim

Hmm...noticed the same thing today was hoping for a quick - "just give it a bit of lube".

Praise Jeebus. Listen to Bill Douglas.

Strip off the clamshell, take it for a ride to eliminate that variable.

Pull the wheel, 27MM I think is needed and find your white-ish plastic bearing down in there is in tatters. If not, revert to DRACO's suggestion.

Buy the 928 sleeve or the fancy upscale one (search) and fix it.

I had a scratchy scrape for a long time. I knew it was the horn contact. Just let it go until recently.

Had to pull wheel and clamshell to replace signal switch.

Just lubed horn contact with high quality nickle based antiseize. No more scratch.

Cooper

Slight thread hijack but related - I have a clonking noise when going over reasonable sized bumps that definitely comes from the steering column. Is it possible that I have a broken/shattered steering column bush? This has been happening since I bought the car 7 months ago and I a gradually working through the snags.

The car is a 1971T Targa BTW.....

Thanks in advance (and apologies for hijack!)

Neil

If the bushing is shot, you will appreciate noticeable play in the steering wheel even while parked. While parked, grab the wheel and try to move it up/down (not turn). If it moves really any amount you probably need to replace the bushing.

Where can you buy a new clamshell or the horn contact part?