As many here on the forum, my car (91 A4) suffered from a loose/sloppy tilt mechanism. Mine moved a decent amount down and to the left when I put pressure on the top of the steering wheel. It was bad enough that several times at the drag strip, on launch, my steering wheel would move to the lowest tilt level, without touching the lever.

I've read enough threads on the forum that I realize what the causes are and what's required to repair it. To be honest, I really didn't want to get into pulling and rebuilding the column as I'm pretty sure that would cost $500 or so and take at least a weeks worth of time.

Another option I'd read about is installation of an oversize tilt pin on the left side of the column to fill the slightly elongated bore. Marc Haibeck makes such a piece and claims that it will fix the vast majority of the problem. I know $50 is a lot for a little piece of steel, but I'll be more than happy to spend the money if it fixes the issue and saves me a ton of time. I decided to buy the oversized pin and give it a shot.

The benefit of doing this method is that the left side pin can be replaced without major disassembly. The hush panel under the dash needs to be removed and the steering column needs to be dropped. Once there, the plastic panel behind the turn signal needs to be removed and you'll then see the pin that needs to be replaced. The pin came out very easily, as the bore was obviously very worn. Inserting the new pin was a bit more difficult and had me hammering much harder than I was really comfortable doing. While hammering, I managed to dislodge the dimmer switch rod actuator. This really wasn't that hard to get back in, but unfortunately took me about 2 hours to figure out. All told, it probably took me 3-4 hours to complete, but now that I know what I'm doing, I'm sure I could do it in under an hour.

I'm very happy with the results. The steering wheel has virtually no play and seems very tight now. As a side benefit, my dimmer switch, which had been binding which made it difficult to operate, now works flawlessly. I'm not sure if the new pin is responsible for this or if it's a result of my fiddling with other things (dimmer rod, actuator, etc). Either way, the whole multi'lever seems to operate better now.

I realize that this is just a band-aid fix and didn't repair the actual issue. But with how little I drive the car, and the fact that I don't use the wheel to assist me getting out of the car, I'm fairly certain the fix will last a longgggg time.

Here's a link to the Haibeck piece.

http://www.zr1specialist.com/HAT%20W...lumn%20pin.htm

 

Great post... and a great product

 

mine is still good but will remenber this if I can. lol

 

In many states the column "wobble" will fail the car for the safety inspection. Many/most don't realize that even when new there's issues at the 7 o'clock position where the compression spring that "loads" the tilt is located.

The o'sized pin will certainly afford nearly all to pass the safety inspection if it's an issue.

OP - I don't know that it's a "Band-Aid", if a person in the future realizes what the "leverage to exit" can actually cost and resists the urge I'd think you could consider it "fixed".

 

its nice to hear about this alternative repair.


i went the hard way and repaired mine.

tom reina of corvette steering sold me the new upper and lower housings. he talked me thru the procedure.

he also passed away the very next month!!! RIP Tom

i have no idea if his business (corvette steering is still active) or whete you would buy the nos steering housings....he told me he bought up all the old ones from dealers and controlled thr inventory of what was left

even with all this work i did, it fixed it 98%. there will always be some tiny amount of play.

the only thing i could have done better was used brand new pins, but tom assured me the pins arent the problem as they are hardened steel. they were also difficult to pound back into place on the new housing so i feel that they were still good.

 

I did the oversized pin install as well. It pretty much completely removed the "down and to the left" movement. However, there is now a straight up and down movement (only about a 1/4") but still enough to notice and bother me. Oddly enough, there is only play in every other position. So if my steering wheel has play, and I move it up one position, or down one position, there is no more play. Weird.

 

I've always thought that condition was a result of shoe and pin wear in the tilt coupling. I know that they can be serviced and I believe there are maybe 3 combinations, 2 for sure. I don't believe the spring that maintains detent to the tilt lever has any effect on what you experience at all. I believe I can scare up an image.

Pins on page 12,13 & 17 - shoes on page 23 & 27 with explanation on 27 as to how it's only a single shoe at a time.

http://www.crankshaftcoalition.com/w...ck_Rebuild.pdf