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Thought I'd recount something I ran into on my 90 SPG this past weekend when I did a bunch of work to it. I've worked on alot of c900's and had never run into this. Maybe it'll help someone years from now searching thru the archives.
Few years ago I got the wobbly steering wheel syndrome (I have the airbag). Replaced the upper ball bearing and rubber bushings... but a week later my SRS light came on again and I found lots of little needle bearings at my feet in drivers footwell. And my steering wheel could again be moved around up/down/left/right, like it was loose. It also started scraping / scratching as it turned. I researched and found out that at the bottom of the airbag car's steering column cage, there is a 2nd bushing -- a rubber encased needle bearing pressed into the bottom of the column that supports the steering shaft as it rotates.
Figured I could just drive it until I got around to replacing (which would require removal of lower dash pad. And once all the needles fell it out wasn't noisy anymore.
So I did keep driving it -- for almost 2 years. Loose the whole time (slightly though, not a really bad looseness).
Fast forward to this past month... I had to replace my entire ABS system, master cylinder, etc etc.. So time to attak this bushing w/ needle bearing too.
I replaced the bushing (woohoo!) - had to take the entire steering column cage out of the car to fit it in (it is a very tight fit).
Got the whole car back together and there is still play in the steering wheel. WTF? I felt down below and sure enough, that needle bearing is not tight against the steering shaft.
I pulled the steering shaft out. It was about 5/6ths of its original thickness in that area (i measured actually). I guess the metal bits had gotten caught when the needle bearing exploded... and over the course of driving it, it had LITERALLY looked like the steering shaft had been taken to with a lathe. It was that shockingly worn. It looked so smooth to be stock (I remember thinking, that's odd that the shaft has that indentation at that point) -- but it wasn't.
Put a new shaft in and it fit tightly.
So ... if your lower steering column needle bearing explodes on a 90+ airbag car, and you notice your steering shaft is at all worn in that needle bearing contact area/surface, replace it.
posted by 75.151.5...
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