92 W250 loose steering column

[CSchoepp]

Hey everybody. I've been lurking for a while, soaking up knowledge. I bought my W250 used in 01 up here in Alberta. A couple years ago when I put the Flaming River steering shaft on I think I damaged the bearings or whatever it is that stablize the shaft up at the steering wheel, so now there's lots of play up and down. I looked through the forum for this problem and only found reference to it being fixable on older trucks (1990). I've been through my Dealer Service Manual and it says the column has to be replaced as a unit, and I've disassembled the steering column looking for nuts/bolts to tighten, to no avail. Is the manual correct, and will I have to replace the whole column assy?



Thanks

Clint

 

[dpuckett]

Where exactly do you have the up and down slack? It could be your steering wheel about to come apart in your lap as you turn into Burger King one day. It could also be something in the tilt part. Or it could be another thing altogether.



Daniel

 

[CSchoepp]

The slack is in the housing that mounts to the steering column to give the tilt. The housing to the steering column is ok, but if I look inside the column and housing, I can see the internal shaft moving up and down. It looks and feels like slop between the actual shaft and whatever (bearings?) is inside the housing.



Clint

 

[JLEONARD]

The bearing is probably an angular contact ball bearing with stamped steel races.

It's likely a standard size. You could check with a local industrial supply house, or a bearing house such as "Bearings Inc".

If the bearing is ok, then you may need to get a bushing made up to take up the slack.