Steering column wear?

[philippe]

Hello,
My mechanic has told me that I have radial wear in my steering column, the part that houses the ignition barrel and the shaft that connects to the first UJ and rubber joint.
Apparently there is no servicable 'collar' that can be replaced and I need to buy a complete column and shaft.
Can anyone tell me if wear here is common as this part is mega bucks and I would like to be sure before ordering.
Many thanks for your advice. Philippe

[OkieRover]

I've replaced mine and you can read about it on my site.
Go to Tech Tips and look for steering column.

[onslow]

Originally Posted by philippe

Hello,
My mechanic has told me that I have radial wear in my steering column, the part that houses the ignition barrel and the shaft that connects to the first UJ and rubber joint.
Apparently there is no servicable 'collar' that can be replaced and I need to buy a complete column and shaft.
Can anyone tell me if wear here is common as this part is mega bucks and I would like to be sure before ordering.
Many thanks for your advice. Philippe

This part is common from the very first Range rovers right until the end of the classics and also on disco 1s so should be easy to get hold of and really simple to swap yourself. so it should be a cheap part to get hold of wear is not that common to warrant replacement so a 2nd hand part will be acceptable.

To be honest they always seem to have a little play in them a simple test is to try to move the steering wheel up and down and left to right (not turning it) if movement is less than 3/8" and there are no horrid noises or roughness in the column I would leave it alone like I said they seldom wear out but the top bearing can collapse (very very rare only seen it once)if it has you would know as you would have a hell of an eccentric steering wheel,my disco1 has covered 256,000 miles on the same column with no problems, remember we are laking landrover tolerances not toyota etc

[Paul Grant]

Philippe,
Where are you located and what year is your Range Rover. If you are in the US I have the upper steering columns from both 1995 Classics as well as from 1988, 1991, and 1993. If you want to save money contact me and I'm sure we can work out a way to save a ton of money over the cost of a new part.
Cheers,
Paul

paulgrant@mac.com

[p76rangie]

Legally you can't rebuild the steering column, but you can in reality. Because they a collapsable column, there is a small sheer pin holding the two end of the column together. Remove this pin and the two ends of the column can be removed. At this point you can replace bearings, bushes, etc. When you reassemble the column you just need something light to act as a new sheer pin. I used part of a plastic knitting needle and it has been OK for around 5 years now.

[cellulararrest]

Originally Posted by p76rangie

I used part of a plastic knitting needle and it has been OK for around 5 years now.

Hmmmm

[p76rangie]

It was only a plastic thing in there in the first place and they break easily. How I found out they came apart was that I was trying to remove the shaft between the coluimn and the steering box. The connection on the column end did not want to come off. Put a bit too much effort in and the whole centre of the steering column came out. Thought I need a new column and removed it. I wanted to see what broke, and eventually found it. The only stress on the pin is stopping the shaft from dropping out. There is no stress on it from turning the wheel etc. I was going to put a pop rivet in it, but I did not want to change the characteristics of the mechanism.

[philippe]

Thanks for all the good advice everyone. My car is in France and about 500kms from where I live, so I had to trust my mechanic's experience on this one.....but ouch for the price! Looks like my summer diet will be starting early this year....£300+vat....Cheers Philippe