Buzz's Steering Column -- Finally Fixed It

[TopNotch]

Some time ago, I noticed a wobble in Buzz's steering column, and swapped it for the one in my "parts car". But I wanted to eventually fix Buzz's column and put it back in. I finally accomplished that today.
I won't go into the entire procedure -- there's an excellent write-up on Oliver Scholz's site, and also here. But I did take some pictures of those pesky screws you have to tighten to fix the column. You have to dis-assemble it all the way to the tilt ball joint...

The ball joint can be dis-assembled by bending it 90 degrees and pulling. Now you can see all 4 screws.

The screws were all very loose. I remove them, put thread locker on them, and tightened them. Here's a wider shot showing the screws and other parts of the dis-assembled column.

I would NOT recommend doing this repair with the column in the car. It's hard enough to get it back together outside of the car. And I  have a warning -- Don't let a lot of time pass after dis-assembling the column before putting it back together. You may forget what goes where.
I have some tools to lend to paid members for this, which I will post in the tool shed. If you are a paid member, and don't see the tool shed section of the forum, PM me.

[GTRS Fiero]

Just to clarify, are those the 4 bolts that need to have the loctite put on them?

Also, is that the entire steering column out?

I'm sure he's happy.



I take it "Buzz” is your yellow car.  At first, I thought it was another member.

[TopNotch]

Just to clarify, are those the 4 bolts that need to have the loctite put on them?

Also, is that the entire steering column out?

I'm sure he's happy.



I take it "Buzz” is your yellow car.  At first, I thought it was another member.

Yes and yes, but not all pieces are shown.
And it's not that buzz, it's this buzz (Go Tech!)...

[GTRS Fiero]

Now that you've done this (any someone will have to do this same fix on the fastback formula), how long does it take to do?

I figured that's what the black stripes were about, although there is a toy frog here that matches that black/yellow pattern.  I was surprised that you repainted without the black stripes, although I think the '88 yellow looks really sharp.  Not a fan of painted trim/molding, though.

[TopNotch]

It's not 88 yellow, it's close to Corvette Millennium yellow, though not exact. And it still has some black, in the trim.
88 yellow is too pastel for my taste.
 

[GTRS Fiero]

Yeah, your car's yellow is about halfway between that bee's yellow and 88 yellow.

[TopNotch]

how long does it take to do?

I'm not sure, because I didn't do it all at once. I took it most of the way apart, but found that I couldn't remove the pivot pins with Oliver's method. So I put it aside, and eventually bought a pivot pin puller. By that time, I had forgotten what goes where, so I had to study the referenced documents. It took much of today to remove the pivot pins, tighten the screws, put it back together, and swap columns in buzz again.