Steering Column; play

[V Mad]

Has anyone had a problem with too much play in the steering column? I did strip and rebuild one before but it was so long ago I cant remember much about it.

Does anyone know if there is any adjustment to take up slack?

[DJT]

Depends where the play is, Chris. If at the top, you could fit the ring sold by TH & JP. This worked well for me. If at the bottom, then there are bearings to replace. Kits of bearings are available from most suppliers.

[V Mad]

Its not radial play, like bearings would give, its rotational, so I suspect there are splines involved.

[mallardstag]

Has anyone had a problem with too much play in the steering column?

I have the same problem, the rotational play on mine is in the upper steering shaft universal joint which I haven't attempted to fix yet. If it's the same problem as you I'd be interested to hear how you went about sorting it.

Simon

[Hettiherald]

Hi chris
I had the same problem with mine a few months ago.
There is a collar on the upper part of the splined section of the shaft, this is threaded onto a tapered thread and will have the effect of closing the female part of the spline onto the male part. It is locked by peening the edge into the slots that allow the shaft to close up. Have fun, it took me two attempts to get rid of the play, as it needs to be fairly tight, but still allow the shaft to slide on the splines.
Dave

[V Mad]

Hi chris
I had the same problem with mine a few months ago.
There is a collar on the upper part of the splined section of the shaft, this is threaded onto a tapered thread and will have the effect of closing the female part of the spline onto the male part. It is locked by peening the edge into the slots that allow the shaft to close up. Have fun, it took me two attempts to get rid of the play, as it needs to be fairly tight, but still allow the shaft to slide on the splines.
Dave

Thanks Dave, that's really useful. I will give that a try.

[V Mad]

Dave, I have a spare column which I took apart today, and found the same cause that you found. The slack was in the splines, and tightening the collar seems to reduce the play. I opted for a tighter fit on the splines since the column does not get adjusted often, and lack of play is the more important factor.

Luckily the upper and lower bearing parts are all serviceable, so these were cleaned, packed with grease and refitted. Tested end to end the play has now gone. Looking forward now to swapping it over on the car and to tick off yet another job.

Simon, spline slack seems more common; are you sure its the UJ causing your problem?