Loose column Shift

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If the tension on your column shift AW4, and a few of us do have them, suddenly goes away it's probally because this little spring broke. It is 5/16th x 1.25 long Image Not Found[/img]

It sits in the lil hole with the brown dot in pic belowImage Not Found

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And to get to it you have to disect this, and since I was in there I retightened the four bolts and took the play out of the tilt steering column. Overtime 3 of the bolts had come completely loose. I was lucky they didn't drop out and lock up my steering while on the road.Image Not Found[/img]

[jtdesigns]

That last picture reminds me of some sort of robotic arm..... How long did all that take to disassemble?

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Probally a lil over an hour. But most of that time was drinking coffee & searching all through my nuts & bolts for the right combo to put together a puller for the tilt joint pivot pins. GM has a tool for that, but, for a one time use I wasn't about to buy one. My puller consisting of a bolt,

2 nuts, 2 fender washers and a 1/4" drive socket as a receiving sleeve, zapped em out quick.

[jtdesigns]

Probally a lil over an hour. But most of that time was drinking coffee & searching all through my nuts & bolts for the right combo to put together a puller for the tilt joint pivot pins. GM has a tool for that, but, for a one time use I wasn't about to buy one. My puller consisting of a bolt,

2 nuts, 2 fender washers and a 1/4" drive socket as a receiving sleeve, zapped em out quick.

 

ok,ok I should of asked,,,"How long did it take you to put it all back together?"

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I haven't yet. Gotta go look for that lil spring replacement tomorrow. Shoud be able to find one at Fastenal they usually have a good selection. But it will take about an hour to put it back together when I get started I don't work to fast anymore More important to get all parts in correctly & checking to make sure they work as intended as you move along . :brows:

[88XJSport]

How many miles does that say???

[HOrnbrod]

I found this site very helpful when I changed out the turn signal / wiper switch to convert to delay wipers. If you can put it back together in an hour you must have been in columns before. :D Took me like four times that. The hardest part was getting the ignition switch gear rack lined up with the shifter.

 

http://www.epiccomputer.com/dale/jeepjunk/tilt/tilt.html

[james750]

How many miles does that say???

 

If that speedo is accurate, u have a sweet truck

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Found a spring for the column shifter tensioner today. Couldn't find one at Jeep or GM dealer. Got the usual response of "Gee we don't make those any more", napa don't have them, so I scrounged the hardware stores & came up with one that was close. Had to shorten it 3/8" & it doesn't have as much tension but it will be OK. So I got it back together in about an hour tonight. Used thread locker on the 4 bolts in the tilt mechanism so I won't have to tighten it up again. The steering wheell is solid as a rock now. Took all the play (read slop) out of the wheel. Drives nice.

And no thats not the original mileage showing. I don't recall what the mileage was when I bought the MJ. But because of its age (89) the state no longer cares about the miles on it, so when I went through the engine and also rebuilt the front suspension at 140460 I reset it to 000000. It now has 3320 since then. or 143780 total.