captmike454

Hello

Trying to get the upper steering column bearing race out without completely taking the column apart is there a way or special tool to get the race out without damaging the housing ?

Thanks !!!

captmike454

TimAT

See if there's anything in this link--
http://jimshea.corvettefaq.com/?cat=5

bazza77

you have to go deeper than that ,





If the cage is damaged , like mine was. The plastic cage(whitish colour) that held the BB just fell apart. I renewed with a new kit from Willcox (black plastic ) and just replaced the plastic cage and BB . Put it back together and it was too tight . So went back into it and replaced the race(s) so it all matched and then it was OK . When I tapped out the original race(s) ,I was scared of damaging it so I sat it in my lap and did it so I couldn't hit it too hard.

I blame people getting in and out of the car and using the wheel as a handle to support them selves as the cause for the bearing collapse . With power steer there's never any serious load on that part of the column.

fstntq

At risk of reviving an extinct thread. Doing this my self and on the tilt tele there are 2 bearings in the head shown. one at the top and one a few inches away at the bottom but only the top is shown having an inner race in the Shea diagrams.
Upon disassembly I didn't come across one for the lower but someone had already been in mine. Is there only 1 inner race for the 2 bearings?
thx
Mike

bazza77

There's one on the shaft that I couldn't budge (you can see it on the shaft behind the housing !) and the top one floats as the length changes with the tilt , that is held in place with that heavy spring and a split "cone" .

My top pic is the two outers that fit into the housing , the second pic is the top bearing ..old and new . third is the new in position.

Do yourself a favour and get your replacements from zip , I did another of these later and the bearings from them were beautiful ! made it so much better.

fstntq

In searching for the parts, one vendor mentioned that their kit only contained one inner race as the lower/upper bearing had no inner race, so mystery solved. The races don't look easy to remove. Hopefully they're not in there too tightly. I have nearly totally disassembled the column. I've removed the thrust washer and retaining clip for the inner lock plate (shown in place in photo) . Unfortunately I can not get the inner "shift tube assembly" to drop down the needed 1/2 inch or so needed to remove this retainer. Is there a trick? I've tried with the tube in both max direction travel L/R. I've seen vids where folk tap on it from the top and it moves. Mine seems very tight up/down. but rotates L/R pretty freely though it looks very rusty. The lower bearing had to be cut off.

bazza77

I never went that far on the early columns , the later don't have that inner tube.

corvgreg

The 77 column didn't have the backdrive tube...

You have to put the backdrive lever in the full up position and move the lock plate counterclockwise as far as it will go. I thread one if the screws into the lower left hole and pull up.