Dale Smith "Doc"

Early in my disassembly of the donor fiero I noticed a "wiggle" in the steering column which wasn't from the tilt mechanism but the steering wheel definitely had some slop in it. I checked the shop manuals I had and at the library and no one had anything on the steering column. So I went at it and, absent any help, it took about 2 hours to figure out how to do this without breaking anything. I'm passing this along because I can't believe I'm the only person who found this problem and now that I've been there I could recreate the disassembly reassembly in probably 30 or so minutes.

After removing the steering wheel, you'll need a wheel or bearing puller, there is a plastic cap which prys out pretty easily, than you' ll see this, except that ring retainer with the arrow is buried down in a notch on the shaft and a very strong spring is pushing the bearing together and the notched plate up, so you have to push the plate down and gently pry the ring out. I found an ice pick worked great to start the process than a screw driver. The plate by the way is the thing that locks the steering wheel when you turn the key off. Below it is a plastic piece which will fall out, that turns the turn signal off after you turn.

Below that is the devil spring that if you have to do this will be a royal pain.


The rest is fairly straight forward, 3 Phillips screws hold the turn signal plate down and the one with the arrow connects the plate to the turn signal arm.

The 3 x's are where 3 torx bit screws were that hold the head of the steering column to the shaft and the arrow is the screw that holds the ignition key assembly in place so if you ever have to get that out for some reason this is how to get it.

With the "head" off you can clearly see the tilt mechanism, and partly see the 4 screws that lead to all of this but they're still not accessible. The spring that pushed the tilt column is a bugger too and a screw driver and 1/4 turn and its out.

A #8 machine screw and a body dent puller will remove the 2 hinge pins of the tilt.

Here it got a little testy because the tilt mechanism would not come off and I thought I had removed all the necessary pieces, it turned out, put the tilt lever back in and actuate it fully and the total tilt mechanism is in your hand.

Finally the culprit screws are at hand and a little dab of loctite so that this is not for naught.

Obviously reverse the process and your done, well that's easier said than done because it took me about 4 tries to get the pieces in place, most notably the two little rods one in the above picture that connect the turn signal to the hi-low light switch and the other one that connects the ignition switch with key portion in the column, can pose lots of challenge. Don't forget to grease up those bearings during reassembly and last but not least getting the last little retainer back in was almost as much fun as it was getting it out.