Steering column wobble fixed
 

Just a report.

My steering column on the '85 Carrera was wobbling up and down and it seemed like it might me the bushing so I removed the steering wheel and inspected the plastic bushing and it seemed OK. I shook the whole column and noticed that the play was in the whole column itself, not the steering shaft. So I removed the tachometer and saw two shear bolts had backed off a bit creating the play. These shear bolts come in from behind the tach and secure the sterring column to the dash. I was actually able to back out the shear bolts by hand completely and replace them with two regular hex head bolts of the same approximate length. So now the whole column is secure and there is no more shake.

If you have a shakey steering wheel and the bushing is OK check these bolts they may be loose.

John,
Other than not having any on hand, why not use replacement shear bolts instead of the hardened ones? There must be a safety reason why they put shears in there in the first place.

btw...did you check out the pictures of Joe Desalvo's Porsche garage that I posted? Bill Burke (gaijinda) and I were up in the Catskills helping him with the roof trusses a few weekends ago.

See ya next season.

Tom

the shear bolts are for anti-theft.

Learn something new everday...thanks JW

Tom,

I didn't use the shear bolts because I didn't have any, and in this case I think their only use is anti-theft as John said. The shear that it refers to is the fact that they have an extra head that breaks off when you reach a certain torque. Clearance was not an issue so I used regular metric hex bolts.

Yes! I saw the garage photos. That looks fantastic! I'm sure you guys are going to have some really cool stuff going on in there when it's done.

Actually looking at the old bolts they do have a drilling down the center. I wonder if they're designed to break away in a crash?