Recently replaced my steering column bearing and has made a big difference. Use a socket as a slide hammer to remove old bearing, quick clean with some WD40 and the new bearing drops in with a tap. We'll worth the £30 makes a massive difference if you got some play.
Nice tip about the socket, this is the last thing I have to do before all my steering is back together… There is a plastic bush maybe 4 inches or so down the outside of the column and some bits of it protruding into the hole/ slot… I’m about to separate the column from the housing to look at this further… Edit: it appears as if item 21 has been spun around, plus I also seem to be missing an item 10…anyone know a source for the 2? Edit2: plastic sleeve at top seems to be an earthing collar…
So once the bearing, thrust washer & spring are replaced by needle bearing they are no longer needed?
Yes, a needle roller bearing completely replaces that ball bearing and spring arrangement. On mine the upper cup was smashed. So I replaced mine using a standard sized bearing and used a standard bushing outside it. For a fair bit less than £30 but I did have to modify the bushing to keep the bearing in place.. Mostly for obscure steering wheel parts, its either actually a standard screw (but available in 1000 quantity ) or you find somebody with an old steering wheel ..
Ok great I've got the needle bearing and an item 21 on order. I've still not found out if the item 10 is just something used on an older bus... there weas definitely nothing there when I removed my outer column. Maybe I'll stick the 3 original bits up for sale as they seem in good nick...
Also can anoyone confirm I’ve got the bottom end of the column and cap correct… I seem to remember the spade connector more at 90 degrees?
Looks OK to me - horn negative side wire spade connector on wire threaded up through the loop at the top of the picture. It can be worth making sure you have a lot of slack on that wire, as its quite easy to yank the connector off as things wave around. Like take it off the horn and feed it through the fixings under the floor so it can be fed up through the floor and connected to the bottom of the column before gently taking up the slack as it goes back in. And you dont want the bolts on the coupler to hook the wire, or the tag to point down at all -- or potentially one little honk as you turn the steering and the horn is dead, and its take it apart again for another go..
