I have a 1990 Cherokee with tilt and it's doing the common "wobble" steering wheel thing. I bough another column out of our local do-it-yourself junkyard out of what was tagged as a 90 Cherokee. Got it home, took out my column and compared it to the other one, and the shaft out the end of the other one is about 3/4-1" shorter than the original. Everything else was the same, so i decided to give it a shot and put it in. Turns out I need that extra little bit of length... Didn't think to check at the time, but is there enough adjustment in the center shaft that goes to the steering box to make this up? Or is another used column in my near future? The "wobble" is so bad I won't let the wife drive it. Someone told me the column I bought might be out of a 91... Go figure...

 

i don't think there is a difference.
i changed mine in my 90 because of the same issue. i replaced it with one from my 89. the only difference is my 89 was a limited, so it had cruise and the 90 didn't. but it still works perfect other than that.

does the shaft telescope? it should slide in and out at the middle to give you that needed inch?

 

I thought the shaft would slide a little, but no luck. The original doesn't slide either. I called the local Jeep dealers parts department today and had him check parts for compatibility (perk of working where I do...) and he said columns out of the 87-90 Cherokee and Comanche are the same and will swap from year to year, everything else is different part numbers. But this blasted column looks IDENTICAL to what's in mine (including all the wiring and switches), except for that blasted little bit of length. My local do-it-yourself junkyard has a couple 87's and an 88, but the non-english speaking people in my area attack cars in there like vultures on road kill, so i'm not holding my breath on a column being there. I even thought about lengthening the one to make it work (a little fab work never hurt...)

 

you should be able to swap the column shafts, no?

i'd have to look at my spare column tomorrow.

 

Its a fairly standard GM column, you should be able to take your old column apart and fix the tilt "wobble" they are famous for.

https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f51/lo...t-broke-13641/

 

That's a hell of a better link than the ones I've been finding. I'll give that a shot and hope it works. The only thing I don't have is the little puller thing, but I should be able to find something that works...

 

mine did the same, got a column out of the junkyard, it was a couple years difference but they were identical. can you take the short one back and get a swap?

 

I wish. the junkyard has a strict "no return unless you buy the warranty" policy. I'm going to head back out there saturday morning to see if the have another one on one of the 87's or the 88. If not, I'm going to see if I can tighten up the original column, or make the other one work...

 

Ok, update. Went to the junkyard, and of course, all the columns were trashed. But I was able to pull the remains of one out of a 91 and compare it to the remains of one out of an 88, and low and behold, they were the same length (measured the shaft sticking out the end... 3"). So, bought 2 of the couplers, figuring I can cut em and weld em together to give me the extra half to 3/4 inch I'll need. I did manage to get the original column tightened up a little to get me through another week...