Mudd
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Bethel Acres, Oklahoma
At least I'm stranded at home My boss wasn't too happy either. "It's Friday and you can't make it to work because your Jeep is broke? Yeah, right".
Anyway, my '88 XJ steering column is disassembled as far as I can go and I still can't get at the problem. It is a tilt column.
The last few days it has been getting harder to turn the key all the way to the start position. Something mechanical is catching. If I turn the key hard enough then something finally gives and it starts. It has gotten worse and I almost couldn't get it started last night after work.
Today I pulled the steering wheel and everything else behind it. What a can of worms. I hope I can get it all put back together. It is not in the lock cylinder. I removed it and turned the mechanism with pliers and it still catches. There is a toothed rack on the left side that transfers the key rotation to the ignition switch rod (blue arrow in photo). This rack is what appears to be catching, back behind the shroud where I can't see. I can manipulate it with a screwdriver while turning the key and reduce the catching quite a bit. Lots of spray lube did not help.
I cannot get to the problem because I cannot figure out how to remove this darn collar/shroud from the column (yellow arrow). Does anyone know how to remove this thing? I'm getting ready to give it a permanent removal, if you know what I mean. But I really don't want to break it.
I now officially hate steering columns. One tiny little mechanical problem and I cannot drive the Jeep. I can still turn on the ignition with the key so I could hide a starter button under the dash.
Any help with getting that shroud off would be greatly appreciated. And if anyone else has had the same problem with the sliding rack catching on something I'd love to hear about that too.
thanks,
John
Anyway, my '88 XJ steering column is disassembled as far as I can go and I still can't get at the problem. It is a tilt column.
The last few days it has been getting harder to turn the key all the way to the start position. Something mechanical is catching. If I turn the key hard enough then something finally gives and it starts. It has gotten worse and I almost couldn't get it started last night after work.
Today I pulled the steering wheel and everything else behind it. What a can of worms. I hope I can get it all put back together. It is not in the lock cylinder. I removed it and turned the mechanism with pliers and it still catches. There is a toothed rack on the left side that transfers the key rotation to the ignition switch rod (blue arrow in photo). This rack is what appears to be catching, back behind the shroud where I can't see. I can manipulate it with a screwdriver while turning the key and reduce the catching quite a bit. Lots of spray lube did not help.
I cannot get to the problem because I cannot figure out how to remove this darn collar/shroud from the column (yellow arrow). Does anyone know how to remove this thing? I'm getting ready to give it a permanent removal, if you know what I mean. But I really don't want to break it.
I now officially hate steering columns. One tiny little mechanical problem and I cannot drive the Jeep. I can still turn on the ignition with the key so I could hide a starter button under the dash.
Any help with getting that shroud off would be greatly appreciated. And if anyone else has had the same problem with the sliding rack catching on something I'd love to hear about that too.
thanks,
John