My GS has some play around "zero" on the steering wheel, and it is really annoying.

I found the problem to be play at this joint, in the picture...

How do I replace that? What parts do I need?

 

mines doing the same thing. All I know is that dude is a PAIN in the a$$ to get to.

 

what part do I need, and where do I get it?

 

I call it the "intermediate steering shaft". I had written someone about how to install one of these. Here is what he said...

Sure man, it's not too tough. You'll need to have the front of the car up on jack stands, then turn the steering wheel a small amount to the right. You do this to make the upper and lower bolts a bit easier to get to, and you'll see what I mean when you start to try to get to them!

I had the PS pump out of mine for replacement, which made it a ton easier to get to the lower bolt, but I think it can be done with the PS pump still in.

You have to completely remove both upper and lower bolts before you can start to remove the shaft.

Important note: once you have the shaft turned to where you can get to the bolts, lock the steering wheel in that position, AND DON'T LET IT MOVE until the new shaft is in and bolted up!

When the bolts are out, slide the upper sleeve of the steering shaft up on the part of the shaft coming out of the firewall. You have to slide it up until the lower sleeve clears the stub on the steering rack. It'll seem like it won't go far enough, but it will. Installation is just the reverse.

Best of luck.

Anyway, I hope that helps. If yours is like mine, you may have to take off a black plastic cover that is covering the bottom. And no, I have not yet tried to install mine yet.

 

Most any vette used parts vendor should have the part, they are actually fairly easy to replace. There are three different designs, and they all work (the early 84-87 design is not worth getting (if it's not bad it will be soon), and a little harder to remove. I believe the last design is still available, but I would probably go used unless you are racing. Your picture is the last design. First make sure the two mounting bolts are tight.

 

Can you tighten any bolts here?? please do tell?

 

Sometimes the coupler on the box or the bracket on the column side can be loose, causing your wiggle or slop. The first design uses a captured rubber coupler that slips, the second uses a rubber coupler (instead of the familiar "rag joints" on other cars. the third uses the u-joint pictured , and rarely goes bad

 

I was just out in the garage having a look. I cant find any bolts to try a tighten?

Cold you please tell or show what bolts i could try and tighten.

The pins the the U-joints can not be tightened right???

 

On the top of the intermediate shaft is u-shaped coupler with a 10mm (could be a 13mm bolt) that tightens it to the steering column. On the bottom at the steering rack is a 10mm bolt that tightens it to the rack. No, I don't think the U-joint is easily serviceable.

 

thanks...

I think I might have some play in my steering rack. Is it possible to adjust the play in the rack itself?

 

No.

 

Damn, Thought it was possible to adjust how tight the rack and pinnion was on a nut

 

Lars on my 87, it developed some rack play. Turned out to be the inner tie rod on the driver side. Not expensive and only took an hour to fix. I cant say the 96 GS would be the same though.

 

I recently replaced my intermediate shaft. The dealer said I brought the last one in the country.

 

I realize this is an old thread but since I used it when trying to eliminate a "clunk" that I traced to the intermediate shaft on my '85 (the clunk was in the firewall end of the shaft and was being transmitted up the steering column), I thought it might be helpful to post my two thoughts for any other later users.

First, zr1fred posted I ordered a used third design but found it was slightly too long and could not install it. (There's actually a second wrinkle as the third design requires rotating the steering wheel 90° but that's a problem I ended up avoiding.)

Second, several posters including zr1fred suggested the first step should be checking the torque on the upper and lower pinch bolts and it seemed to be correct (44ft/lbs for my '85). But after removing the bolts using a breaker bar and a lot more torque than 44ft/lbs, I found the threads showed blue thread locker. When I reinstalled the original intermediate shaft (after checking the U-joints, which were fine), using Permatex Blue and torquing to 44ft/lbs, no "clunk". Here's my guess what "fixed" it.

My car was modified with the Lingenfelter package (and lots of other goodies) in '88 to be a street racer and then was briefly drag raced but after those 11 years (and 100,000 miles), it was stored until I bought it in late 2010 and started rebuilding it. My guess is that even if the pinch bolts were checked for proper torque, whoever did so was fooled, as I was, by the thread locker and as the steering column shaft wore and the coupler loosened, no one noticed and retightened the pinch bolt.

John

 

since we're pickin on old threads, it is possible to adjust play in the rack, but by the time it needs to be done , you should rebuild it. alignment shops used to include it in the service