Steering Wheel Play

[Gary Frank]

My 90 Reatta that I have been driving for about 3 years suprised me. I just noticed has alot of up & down play in the wheel. When I poiston my hands at 2 & 7 O'clock and pull up and down there is a lot of movement. My 92 Riv has very little play. Does anyone know what the problem may be. I tried differant wheel elevation positions, but with no effect.<BR>Gary Frank

[padgett]

Probably three torx screws that need tightening. Problem is that you have to disassemble the steering column to get at them.

[Gary Frank]

Thanks for the reply Padgett. I have a manual and I am looking at the tilt steering column assy. The wheel only has play in one direction. Could you explain where the three bolts you are refering to are so I can get an idea of lies ahead. Page 3F4A-2 displays a nice diagram, a lot parts there.<P>Gary Frank<p>[ 04-07-2002: Message edited by: Gary Frank ]

[Gary Frank]

The movemet in the wheel is at the 7:00 clock positon and only moves downward. This does not bother me but I do not know if will cause further problems.

[padgett]

As usual am 2,000 miles from my manuals but my Fiero has done the same thing for as long as I have had it and I just live with it (never notice when driving).

[Edselguy]

My 90 has had the same steering wheel play in the same position as yours. It has been that way ever since I bought it (9000 miles ago). I have not noticed an increase, when I do that's when I'll fix it.

[Barney Eaton]

I had a little of the same slop/play and this afternoon decided to tighten the screws.<P>This may be a "duck soup" job for someone that has done a couple, but my advise it to forget it until it gets lots worse or take it to your friendly GM dealer and let them have at it.<P>I got past the turn signal section and a part fell out of the dimmer side. The manual is less than helpful. At that point I made the decision to put it back together.<BR>I then spent the next hour trying to get the steering shaft to stay in place. It was if it was spring loaded in the in position and the shaft would pop out of the bearing just under the turn signal and was a bear to get back into the bearing race.<P>Finally got it back together and when I plugged in the horn connection, the little tab on the signal canceling cam was broken.<P>So tomorrow a new cam and tear it down again.

[Gary Frank]

Thanks to all for their suggestions and efforts on this matter. This problem may have present forever, I just noticed it the other day. I will go with the advice to leave it as is for now and see if the condition worsens. The column assy looks very complicated and has the potential to frustrate or at least try my patience. Again thanks for the input.<P>Gary Frank

My wheel has a whole lot of slop in it. I took it apart becuase my ignition broke, I could turn the key and it would not shut off. well a little piece of metal broke inside so my friend and I thought we'd just pull the steering wheel and make it so we could just push the rod down to start it. until I could get a new part and get it fixed. well when we went to put the wheel back on we had the hardest time the shaft kept falling down in the column and we couldn't get the snap ring back in. well we made our own took to get the wheel back on but in our hast I got the spring and a couple of bushings back in backwards or something. I wonder if maybe the bushings are common to wear down or something causing your reatta to have a little bit of play in it but not as bad as mine. just a thought.

[allbuick]

I have tried to get all of the play out of Reatta columns without success. Of the over 100 Reattas we have I have none that have no play in column. Normal seems to be a spring loaded type of looseness. The wheel typically moves about 1/2 to 5/8 of an inch.up and down. If it moves much more than that then the tilt head (the torx bolts) might be loose

Does anyone have any experience with the steering column on an '89 Reatta? I had a simple job of removing the steering wheel to replace the turn signal assembly since my bright/dimmer casting broke. Upon reassembly and pushing the steering wheel back onto the steering shaft, this shaft bacame loose and would turn like an old Atari joystick. I looked in the manual to review the steering column assembly, and MAN this is a job if I have to break it down! (see http://www.aaca.org/misc/163087-StCo.gif) Could this simply be pulling the steering shaft out to get the snap ring on or just wishful thinking?

[Shelby]

DRIVIN HOME BE careful if you screw this up it is very dangerous.

There a bunch of bearing and shims and stuff in there that isf you did see the way the came out you will take forever to figure out.


If you get one out of place the steering will not turn.


GET HELP !!!! <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/image.../confused.gif" alt="" />

[harry yarnell]

I have tried to resolve this loosness in the past, and it WILL tax your patience in repair mode.. There are four screws at the base of the column (not three) that need tightining. Everything inside the column has to come out. I've got a '90 with a loose column, and it's going to stay that way, till it gets worse.