Taking apart a steering columm, need a detailed description on how to get all the way to the tilt / 88 pontiac

Question

This is a 1988 Pontiac Bonneville, with automatic transmision

Answer 1

first of all pay no attention to the big long list buddy that works at the junk yard gave you.
If you need to know how to strip the column down to the tilt ,,,my guess is your tilts broke,,your column is loose all afloat..
save yourself a headache go see buddy at the junk yard and put a used column in your car.

Answer 2

Well first off let me tell you I have never done it on an 88 Pontiac Bonneville, but it should be similar to other cars I have done.

First off, disconnect the battery, making sure there is no power supplied to the car. Next, you will need to pull the horn button, and disconnect it from the column. Now you will need to remove the large nut holding the steering wheel to the column. You will most likely need a special tool called a "steering wheel puller" since they are pressed onto splines from the factory with the nut you took off earlier. What this tool does is has two or three bolts that screw into provided holes in the wheel while a center jack bolt presses on the end of the steering shaft giving the necessary leverage to "un"-press the steering wheel off of the steering shaft. This will allow you to remove the steering wheel. Now you should be at the inner workings of the column.

The easiest way to go about the remainder of this whole process is to remove the column from the car entirely, making it easy to see and reach everything. It may also be easier to do this without the driver side seat installed. It is held in with four bolts. In order to remove the column from the car, you will have to remove any plastic panels along the bottom sides and top of the column. There are typically four bolts holding the column to the dashboard structure, and one bolt holding the steering shaft to the steering mechanisms under the front of the car. You may also need to remove some small bolts or screws holding the grommet where the steering shaft passes through the firewall (down by the pedals.) Then the column should come right out with maybe a little bit of tugging. Once you have the column out then we can continue with our column disection.

You will need to CAREFULLY remove the turn signal switch (which will require removal of the turn signal lever and possibly other items) and either move it to one side, or disconnect it at a plug usually located somewhere along the column close to the dashboard. Depending on the car you may also have other switch assemblies (like headlights and wipers) that would also need to be removed carefully at this time. Now you should be able to see the lever and mechanisms that control your tilt. There will be a sort of round plastic U-joint that lets the wheel actually tilt without binding, and also some catch points so you get that familiar "catch" when you adjust it. There should be a spring that tilts the wheel towards the up position which helps carry the weight of the column when you adjust it, and there should be the lever which releases the catch when you want to adjust it.

As I said earlier, this is a typical design, and not perfectly specific to your car, but it should give you a basic rundown of what is involved.

Answer 3

This is a difficult job for even a good mechanic. I used to do this all the time and the guys who used to work with me where even scared to do this. You have to remove the steering horn pad and connection first, then the large nut, and then either reef the steering wheel of with your bare hands or get a puller. I used to pull these off with my bare hands but it was a struggle. You will now need a special tool and no other way to do it as you have to collapse the column's bearings preload spring and remove that small snap ring around the columns shaft. This will get the remove the column's locking plate and horn contact. Next you need to remove all the under dash panels and the electrical connectors for the turn signal, cruise, and any other that are going up the base of the column on the underside of it. You have to take the whole support bracket off from the dash to the column. Now remove the hazard button, the signal switch actuator, and the whole signal switch with wiring. There will now be three screw that hold the column cover onto the support so remove these. Watch how the cover is removed as there will be some pieces that will fall out that have to be re-installed namely the hi-lo actuator and rod for the headlights. After this is pulled off you will be staring at the tilt ball and the most probable thing you are after and that is the four bolts that hold the tilt mechanism to the column as these usually get loose and let the wheel flop all over the place. If this is the problem, clean the bolts and holes up and re-torque using a loctite to keep the bolts in place forever. Now reverse to install. This used to take me around 2.5 to 3.0 hours to do and I did this literally thousands of times. It is a complex and time consuming job and there are lots of things that are easily broken in here so it might get expensive if you don't know what you are doing. Good luck.

Answer 4

A steering column is not for the faint of heart. it takes about 400.00 worth of tools to work on one.do yourself the favor,take it to the pontiac dealer and let them fix it.it will be cheaper in the long run And they are factory trained.

Answer 5

takes some speciel tools. i recommend taking to a professional

Answer 6

Extremely difficult without special tools.

www.alldata.com

But if you really insist...

http://www.gnttype.org/techarea/suspension/t_steering.html