I am happy to report that my neighbor and I removed repaired and reinstalled the tilt steering column frim my 92 Suburban.

It got to the point that you could swing the steering wheel in a full circle the diameter of which was about 2" wider than the wheel itself. It also got to be a handling problem.

That said , that is one of the uglier jobs I have done on a vehicle in my 40 or so years of auto mechanics. What a royal PITA it is to disassemble the column! Especially disassemble it and remember how each and every piece came out of it so that you can get them back where they belong AND in the correct sequence.

On the other hand I am now an expert on 92 Suburban tilt wheel steering columns, disassembly and reassembly! :)


There were 4 loose bolts inside the assembly that basically held it all together. They are now loctighted and torqued. I do not expect to EVER have to do this particular task again on my Suburban.

I had this happen on my G20 van. I think what causes the bolts to come loose is allowing the wheel to slam into the "up" position when tilting.

I don't let it slam anymore. I agree that fix is a pain.

-Matt

Those bolts working loose are a pretty common problem with GM tilts.

They are fun to take apart aren't they :)

I tore apart a tilt column in a 99 F250 today, talk about fun. :(
The sad part is I didn't even need to do all that just to get the broken off piece of the ignition lock cylinder out but I didn't know cause I had never worked on a Ford column before. :o
I called jeff74 and he looked it up on alldata for me and told me how over the phone.
TOO BAD I didn't call him first but I finally got it all back together.

Just did that about 2 months ago on my '89 silverado! What a royal PITA! I downloaded directions that described it as a "12 pack" job. I followed the advice. That 12 pack was definitely a necessary tool for the job. My column is tight now!

A lot of the reason they come loose is folks use them as a handle to get in and out. As you can see the are not built to for that kind of use. If you use them as a handle for entering and exiting the issue will come back.

"Like a rock" :rolleyes: