What causes 85 and 86 GL's steering wheels to be loose?

[one eye]

I have had 6 different EA82 from 85 to 86 and the all have loose steering columns, is there anyway to tighten this up? 87 therough 89 donthave this problem, It looks like its just on the frist shaft before the first knuckle, I tried to swap it out with one from an 87 but none of the plugs match up. If anyone has any Ideas let me know.

 

Jeff

[Gloyale]

Take off all the covers of the column.

 

there is a plate that the shaft comes through, that is bolted to the collar that holds the bearing.

 

Check that the flange is bolted tight. If it's loose, you may have to pry off the tilt cables to access the screws.

[one eye]

Right on I'll give that a try, I got all the covers and stuff off, but I couldnt tell if there was a bearing up in there somewhere or what, so I figured to go this route. I hope that will help it, if not fix it.

Thanks

 

Jeff

[WoodsWagon]

My 86 3-door had the same issue. I never did anything about it. I'm pretty sure you can swap all the 86 switches onto the newer column, and the harness is just threaded through and zip-tyed into place. So swapping the older switches onto the newer column should let you put it in.

[Quidam]

Hey,

 

I had one low mile '86 with the same problem. I'm pretty sure it was a bearing. Gave the new owner a couple of columns to make one good one.

 

Doug

[one eye]

I would swap everything off an 87 but not everthing is the same, I'll get some pics and show the differences.

 

Jeff

[oldschool]

If you do a complete dash swap to a 87 , you will get rid of that problem. To the the dash swap it only takes a couple of hours to do. It is easy to do. Go to U-pull it and get a 87 dash and wiring harness and it is a plug and play.

[one eye]

I figured it out.......................... I replaced the whole column, seems to work pretty good now...........

 

Jeff