Steering wheel loose - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

prcockram · 03-02-2006, 11:45 AM

Greetings:

I have a 1988 Camry that I just acquired for my daughter. Among the problems I'm repairing is a loose steering wheel (wheel will move up, down, side to side with no resistance and no movement exterior of column. When I removed the wheel, I can move the shaft freely but doesn't appear to be moving anything lower in the column. Is there supposed to be a bearing at the shaft end that holds the shaft in place? There isn't one there now...

thanks!

Paul Cockram

Mod edit: No commerical/business website advertising.

See #14.

http://toyotanation.com/forum/t1779.html

Cyorke · 03-02-2006, 12:47 PM

I believe it is more of a plastic bushing than a bearing like you would normally thing of. You can try www.autozone.com and go to the repair manual section. Once you get there jsut follow the links to the steering section. It will probably give you a breakdown of the steering column.

Cyorke · 03-02-2006, 12:51 PM

^^^ well forget what I said earlier I wen to autozone myself and it does not show a breakdown of the steering column. Your best bet is to remove the steering wheel, the combination switch and anything else inteh way. Once you get it down to that point you should be able to move the shaft that comes into the abck of the wheel. You can probably see waht needs to be done from that point on. You may even try calling around to places that do steering column repairs. Iknow here in Nashville there are a couple of places that do only steering column repairs. It may be worth a shot to see if they can give you some ideas.

csaxon · 03-02-2006, 03:26 PM

The steering wheel nut torque was changed from 26 ft lbs to 37 ft lbs to address a loose steering wheel. Is this a tilt steering wheel?

prcockram · 03-02-2006, 05:26 PM

Yes, it's a tilt wheel. I went to the dealer and looked at their parts dep't blowup of the column and there is no bushing there, only a bearing that looks to be 4-6 inches down in the column and it costs $88 !! I can get a column from a junkyard for not much more than that - so, here's what I did temporarily; I took a rubber grommet, cut it down to fit, lubed it with Lithium grease and shoved it in around the shaft. Then I torqued the wheel bolt down and Voila! It's tight, at least until I can get a column and replace it...

Thanks!

Paul Cockram

csaxon · 03-02-2006, 10:04 PM

That's American ingenuity at work. Glad to see it's still alive! Good Luck!

csaxon · 03-03-2006, 03:39 PM

This site has good info on your car.
http://www.autozone.com/servlet/UiBr...3d80157606.jsp