XWish Ute

G'Day All,

I've got a 1994 ED Fairmont. The steering has got fairly tight all of a sudden. You can mostly still drive it OK but it seems to have difficulty self-centering, which can make it a bit of a pig to drive at times.

Symptoms. Started out with a squeak in the column when turning. Then every so often, a couple of 'clunks' (again it felt like it was in the column) when turning. Now it's gone tight.

Before I start tearing things down, could it be the bearings in the column? If so, how hard are they to change - I assume Ford still stocks 'em. I only have a Gregorys manual, and it isn't worth a pinch of poo for this. I thought I would remove the intermediate shaft and then spin the steering wheel to see if the column is binding.

What do you all reckon?

Cheers

XWish Ute

Martin

I could be the bush/bearing at the base of the column where the shaft goes through the firewall.
And no you cant replace the bush, the only way to fix it is a whole new steering column.:dead: About $300 new from Ford (from memory), or from $10 - $200 from a wrecker

The bush on mine squeaks, I was going to replace it but havnt got around to it, its pretty low on my priority list at the moment.


Oh it could also be the little electrical contacts for the cruise/horn behind the steering wheel, give them a little grease and it may fix it.

__________________
1993 ED XR6 M5 (1 of 329)
Polynesian Green
Turbo on the way!!
1993 EBII Fairmont (Now wrecking, PM if you want any parts)
1988 Nissan R31 Skyline

TIKFD6

Wish
i had the same problem on my 94 ED XR6,had to replace the rack, then 3 months later the pump shat.

Hope its not that. :dead:

Cheers
Kerry

XWish Ute

Thanks for the replies so far.

Thought I would have a look this evening and removed the intermediate shaft (easy job!).

Spun the wheel, and can hear the scraping sound at the lower bearing at the toe plate on the firewall. So it appears that the bearing is shot. Although you could feel the resistance as you turned the wheel, it wasn't as great as when you hook everything up again and drive around.

So it may also be the rack is on the way out too. Doh!

I'll keep you all posted - might be a trip to the front end specialist.........


.....maybe I should have kept the trusty XF...........