Issue resolved


[Modified by Rick Church, 12:21 AM 7/16/2003]

 

No, but mine sure has a tendecy to start jitterin' from side to side or whatever, over certain freeways. Drives me nuckin' futz!

Other freeways, I'll be able to go 0 - 100 or so, with no vibration. But the darn ones I drive daily on just set that vibration up and won't stop until I'm on a different section of road. :smash: :mad

 

Rick, If the telescoping feature is the problem then there is a ring right behind the horn button on the steering wheel which locks the wheel in place. I'm not sure about the tilt though. I suspect that it's a gear which the tilt lever will slide into. If it's slipping then you may have some teeth in that gear which have worn...there's also a spring that should keep it in place and the spring may be worn...or both. I'm afraid you will need to dismantle it to see what exactly the problem is.

 

It is the tilt bro that is acting up..have tilt in my 86 K10. I have a 4 inch lift on the thing..so I grab my wheel and use it to pull up in the truck. Took it to a mechanic buddy of mine and he said there is a nut in there that will loosen up with the pulling on the wheel over time. All he did was tighten it up and I was good to go! Check it out.

 

Its the steering column support. Check out Corvettesteering.com...it only $65 but a bear to install. If I had to do it over again, I send it in. If you want to try at home, grab a Helms manual, pull the column and do a bench rebuild.

 

Take a look at http://www.corvettefaq.com in the Steering section.
I have just updated Paper #1 where I have several tips on checking looseness in the T&T steering column. Download the following:

Tilt & Telescoping Column 69-82 Disassembly & Repair Paper #1 - check for loose pivot pins & lock shoes, replace lock,key buzzer, and adjust telescope lock (Rev 27JN03)

This may help you to analyze what is wrong.

 

Jim, I have loose pivot pins i my column since I have had it, about 7 years now....I think it was once in an accident judging from when I got it....
but are the pieces needed to tighten up those loose pins still available???

what are they typically?? any idea what GM list price is??

GENE

 

Had the same problem with my '72. A mechanic worked on the column for about 3 hours, replaced a couple parts (dont know which, he didn't charge for them) and its all tightened up.

 

Gene,

The following has been copied from my Paper #1 and Paper #3

Grasp the steering wheel and try to rock it with a side to side motion. When you conduct this check, do you only notice a looseness in a side to side direction and not in an up and down direction? If this is the case, you most likely have loose pivot pins.

Loose Pivot Pins – Possible Corrective Actions
Remember! The pivot pins have a slip fit (but no slop) between its smaller diameter and the support. The pivot pin larger diameter is an interference fit to the bearing housing.

1). The pivot pins are hardened. They also have a very thin surface coating. The first thing to try is to rotate the loose pivot pin(s). It just might be possible that the surface coating on the pin may be worn in just one location so that rotating the pin to a different position and reinserting into the housing or support might regain the precision fit.

2). The next approach may be to replace the housing or support with one that has pivot holes of the correct size. The support from any tilt or T&T column from 1969 through at least 1982 should be an acceptable replacement. However, only a T&T column with a round head can supply the bearing housing for a 1969 through 76 T&T column. Only a T&T dimmer column (one with the bulge on the left side of the housing) can supply a replacement housing for a 1977 through 1982 column. T&T columns were also available in Cadillacs and big Oldsmobiles from 1969 through the 1970s.

3). The other course of action is to make the pivot pins larger. If you have access to a machine shop, you could fabricate new pivot pins from hardenable steel with a larger outside diameter to regain the press fit to the housing and/or the precision slip fit to the support. Another thing you could try is to plate the original pivot pins. After plating you will probably have to polish the appropriate diameters so as to attain the proper interference or slip fit. Remember, a press fit is only a few ten thousandths of an inch of interference between the pins and the housing holes. Any more interference and the pins will plow metal out of the mating housing holes as they are being inserted rather than just expanding the hole to lock them in place.

 

Rick,
Your problem is in the lock shoes. Does it snap down to the lowest position from every adjustment position? Or just from one?

There are a pair of shoes inside the column. One shoe has four slots the other has three slots. They work alternately so you get seven adjustment positions. If it only pops out from one position, you have one bad slot in one shoe. Paper #3 describes replacing the shoe(s).

 

Mine does the same thing so I've learned not to pull down Hard on the steering wheel. :chevy