After taking my dash apart as I've done in numerous occasions without problem, this time once it was back, the steering felt loose. Traced it to the rake adjustment that I had moved to get the panel out from behind, which was allowing the steering wheel to bob up and down by a fraction making an audible knock and moving as I steered. This I found really annoying so after wiggling the adjustment lever didn't work I decided to have a look.
Took the plastic surround off from behind the steering wheel by undoing the 5 screws from underneath. This revealed two quadrants, one either side, with teeth on them and two arms with teeth that get pushed against the quadrants. All worked by the side adjusting lever connected to some sheet metal stampings a with tracks cut into them.
Left side
You can just see the stamping behind the toothed arm.
Right side
On the first photo, it turns out the arm with the spring in the foreground, is a final lock. This was not engaging because the arms were stopping just shy of their final position. All the last mm of return being taken care of by springs.
So, I decided to clean off the old gloopy grease and spray some new in (the only stuff I had was white grease but I figured this should be ok). I loosened off the pivot bolt at the top of the lower photo and sprayed grease into the pivot and tightened it back up. All the time it was loose, it worked faultlessly, tighten it and it became reluctant again.
Note, there is an adjustment to the right hand side so that the meshing of the teeth on both sides can be lined up (nice touch Mr T[emoji4]). I tried adjusting this but still no joy when all pulled up tight.
The adjuster is the hexagon shaped chrome looking piece just a bit below the nut.
Final lock in unlocked position (wobbles)
Final lock in fully locked position as it should be.
After much deliberation, I decided the thing worked best of the nut was left slightly loose, so, reluctantly, I swapped the 6mm nut for a self locking 'nylock' nut and did it up till it wouldn't work and backed it off a smidge. It all works fine now.
Ok, I know it's not used every day but I figured if it got moved again and didn't settle back properly then there's that super annoying movement in the steering back to be a distraction.
Hope this helps if anyone encounters this problem as it wasn't too bad a job once I found what needed doing.
Took the plastic surround off from behind the steering wheel by undoing the 5 screws from underneath. This revealed two quadrants, one either side, with teeth on them and two arms with teeth that get pushed against the quadrants. All worked by the side adjusting lever connected to some sheet metal stampings a with tracks cut into them.
Left side
You can just see the stamping behind the toothed arm.
Right side
On the first photo, it turns out the arm with the spring in the foreground, is a final lock. This was not engaging because the arms were stopping just shy of their final position. All the last mm of return being taken care of by springs.
So, I decided to clean off the old gloopy grease and spray some new in (the only stuff I had was white grease but I figured this should be ok). I loosened off the pivot bolt at the top of the lower photo and sprayed grease into the pivot and tightened it back up. All the time it was loose, it worked faultlessly, tighten it and it became reluctant again.
Note, there is an adjustment to the right hand side so that the meshing of the teeth on both sides can be lined up (nice touch Mr T[emoji4]). I tried adjusting this but still no joy when all pulled up tight.
The adjuster is the hexagon shaped chrome looking piece just a bit below the nut.
Final lock in unlocked position (wobbles)
Final lock in fully locked position as it should be.
After much deliberation, I decided the thing worked best of the nut was left slightly loose, so, reluctantly, I swapped the 6mm nut for a self locking 'nylock' nut and did it up till it wouldn't work and backed it off a smidge. It all works fine now.
Ok, I know it's not used every day but I figured if it got moved again and didn't settle back properly then there's that super annoying movement in the steering back to be a distraction.
Hope this helps if anyone encounters this problem as it wasn't too bad a job once I found what needed doing.
)
