huntingman2706217

The last month i had a problem with my jeep turning off when turning right... tried all kinds of things including even dropping my gas tank and inspecting... my old chevrolet buddy showed me that the problem lied in the steering column. When i turned right there was just enough pressure on the column and just enough from me pulling on it to keep my balance in the seat to disconnect the arm going from the ignition lock to the ignition switch... causing my XJ to turn off... from what i now understand chevy and jeep shared these columns so thats how he knew what was going on... i just thought my tilt was broke and was letting my steering wheel go up and down... After even posting on this site and 2 mech shops nobody knew what was wrong so i figured id write it up...

Tools... 13/16 deep socket and braker bar or 1/2in ratchet, steering wheel pulley, phillips screw driver, flat head, several sizes of heck head type screwdrivers, special pulley for pins (see pics), and i think that about covers it

Time... depends on you and how mad you get but roughly an hour

Difficulty... uuhhh... tedious for sure


Lets get started...

huntingman2706217

Start with popping off the horn cap... just yank on it...

Unscrew the 3 phillip head screws and take it all off... Keep in mind the thin disc you take off must go back on in the same direction or your horn will never turn off

huntingman2706217

Unbolt the 13/16 nut in the center and hookup your steering wheel pulley and pull the steering wheel off and set off to the side

push in on the metal gear looking part and remove the small metal ring thats around the shaft and pull all the loose components off

huntingman2706217

once its off there will be 4 black phillips screws you will need to pull off... 3 of which may be hidden and you must work the signal switch back and forth to get to them... the other is for the signal switch

remove the tilt lever by unscrewing it like its a bolt and remove the flasher switch by taking out the phillips screw

huntingman2706217

pull back the blinker switch and let it hang below... if you dont have enough slack like i didnt then youll have to unplug from under the dash...DO NOT pull the switch and wires all the way out...

youll see a black heck screw on the upper right hand side... take it out and then remove your lock... theres a small white thing next to the black hex screw... pull it out once the lock is out so you dont loose it...

Theres 3 silver large heck screws that need to come out next... once out everything should pull up and over the shaft and will all be hanging by the wires...

huntingman2706217

your finally at the point where you can tighted your bolts... there are 4 inverted 1/4 heck bolts that hold everything tight... in order to get to the two top bolts you must use this special pulley in the pics to pull the pins on either side... If you look in the middle you will see a white joint... im was told if you take it all out that its a pain to ever get back together and almost impossible with it in the jeep... I chose after i had already pulled the pins to leave my top two bolts alone once i realized it was the only way to get to them... So i put my pins right back in...

huntingman2706217

The bolts you trying to tighten look like this...

huntingman2706217

with the pins back in the bottom bolts line up correctly for tightning... one of my hex bolts actually was all the way out and floating around in there when i took this all apart... You will find one through a small hole on the bottom left and another on the bottom right near the wires thats pretty easy... pull one at a time and add a strong locktight to the threads unless you want to do this again and reinstall... tighten them up tight...

huntingman2706217

with the two bottom hex bolts in my steering tightened right up and everything was like new... tilt worked again... no more cutting off when turning right... all around safer setup...Now... there 1/4 inverted heck bolts... i had the inverted hex sockets BUT they were no use since they didnt fit down in there because they were 3/8in drive... i used a 1/4 6 point socket with a 1/4 ratchet and it worked fine... the one on the bottom left was alittle tricky but you can make it happen... Now you get started sticking everything back together the way you took it off!! Make sure you stick the little white thing in BEFORE you stick in the lock or it wont be right... goodluck and have fun getting ill with it!