[siragan]

I was just out on a car trip, and when I turned off the highway after driving on it for like 5 hours straight, I parked my s-cort and I came back to it later that night to drive it and I noticed that the steering was kinda stiff and sticky feeling and that the plastic collar for the steering column just in front of the wheel (inbetween the wheel and the gauge cluster) was rubbing against the backside of the steering wheel.

Anyway, I have a 95LX wagon and afaik, it does have power steering. I checked the fluid levels and the fluid levels were peachy keen. The tierods are good and the wheels were just balanced and aligned. There are no whining sounds from the power steering, only the sound of the plastic collar rubbing against the wheel when I turn.

Suggestions?

 

[91sleeper]

If it sticks to whatever side you turned it last, it sounds like the thrust bearings. They are in between the strut tops and upper spring mounts, and help them turn smoothly. If they break or get crushed then the steering will stick like that.

 

[siragan]

Okay...
my mom owns a taurus, and the steering on that thing is super smooth and light. I personally don´t like it so light feeling, and my escort has never been as light as my mom´s taurus, but it´s been smooth. It was smooth. Then I got pissed off cause I got the wrong directions and kinda hit the steering wheel, but nothing hard cause I love my escort too much. Anyway, it just felt really stiff when I drove it the next morning, and it loosened up a little bit a few hours later, but it still wasn´t as good. I can´t imagine that my thrust bearings would go bad just like that, so I am led to believe that it has to do with that damn plastic housing on the steering column. I know that other owners have had this problem too, and I´d like to find out how to take the housing off and take a look-see.

thanks.

 

[91sleeper]

Ah well yeah that wouldn´t be the thrust bearings. The escorts do have a collapsable steering column, and if you hit it too hard maybe you crunched it in a little. Hopefully not. Just take off the plastic (only 4 screws) and fix it so it doesn´t rub anymore.

 

[siragan]

okay, I took off the collar and the steering is perfect once again. I´m about to go outside and put the collar back on, but I think that the problem will show up again and I´ll have the crappy steering, so I´m throwing some white lithium grease all along the little plastic rim of the collar in hopes that things will smoothen out a biteroo.

thanks for the help.

 

[siragan]

arg.
I put the collar back on with the lith grease, and even though the lithium grease makes things smoother, you can still tell that it rubs on the collar. I tried to kinda pull the steering wheel towards myself to see if it would budge at all. No dice.

So I took the 4 bolts off like in this (couresy of your lovely webpage):

and the steering column did indeed drop. I noticed that the slots for the 4 bolts on the steering column weren´t just round, but slotted (ovals) which indicated to me that the steering wheel could come in and out, not just up and down.

So I took out the bolts and pulled the steering wheel a little towards me. No dice whatsoever- that sucka is not going to budge, towards the firewall or towards the driver.

What do I do? I don´t want to stick lith grease everywhere and bodge the problem up, I want the problem FIXED in the first place...

 

[siragan]

um... so how do I get the steering wheel to come out towards the driver a little?

 

[TheBlade]

You know Mike my scort has the same prob. It rubs badly...infact when I turn the wheel it pulls or pushs the turn signal level on. Power signals...kinda cool...but WAY annoying. I pulled the whole thing apart wiring my MSD box and stuff...didn´t see anything out of the norm. Maybe I should look into the thrust bearing ?

 

[siragan]

um...
so how do I fix it?

I´m just running it without the steering column shroud. super silky smooth, but I´m worried about shiznit getting in there, and it also looks pretty ghetto.