Hey Everyone hoping I can get some help figuring this out. My 92 Cherokee has a loud popping/ squeaking noise from steering column between dash and firewall. I removed the steering shaft and verified u joints are good. However I noticed there is significant play in the end of the steering column at the firewall. My question is 1) could the steering column bearings cause a popping/ squeaking sound and 2) how difficult would it be to replace the bearings?

 

Yeah man that's the lower column bearing. They wear out and let the shaft flop around, makes that popping noise. The squeak is probably the bearing up by the steering wheel.
You can fix it but you gotta pull the steering wheel and tear the column apart. Not rocket science but you'll need a puller and some patience. If you don't wanna go that deep yet, try spraying some white lithium grease up in there and see if it shuts up for a while.

 

Thanks for the response, yeah I cleaned it up and looks like the lower bearing is indeed shot. Can I just pull out the whole column to replace lower bearing or do I need to tear it all down? Just not sure how to remove the green plastic bearing sleeve at bottom.

 

Update: Got the steering column out and was able to tap the plastic bearing sleeve out with no issues. Hopefully this helps anyone else who has clunking/popping from steering in dash area.