[Shotimes] Simple steering improvement

[Nathan Brown]

I had a really annoying slop in my steering, even after retightening the 
pinch bolt on the steering pinion (mentioned on the Shotimes Website).

While I was fiddling around in the drivers footwell, I noticed that a great 
deal of slop was occurring in the telescoping member at the base of the 
steering column (right behind the brake pedal). I removed the telescoping 
part and inspected it for wear. There's a square plastic (nylon?) insert 
inside that mates with the outer steel square tube, and the plastic had worn 
slightly, allowing a bit of backlash to develop.

My fix was to slide 0.003" stainless steel shims between the nylon piece and 
steel outer tube on two adjacent sides. The shims were about 1/2" wide and 
1.5" long. I tried doing all 4 sides, but there wasn't ample clearance. I 
also had to bend the shims slightly to conform to the U-shaped grooves in 
each side of the steel tube. That appered to tighten it up considerably 
while one end chucked up in the vice.

After reinstalling the shimmed part into the car, a test drive confirmed 
that the steering had indeed tightened up considerably. A very small amount 
of free play is still apparent, but that's likely due to my old tie rod 
ends.

Anyway, just wanted to share this quick fix for one potential sloppy 
steering culprit.


Nathan
'93 ATX





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