Had a ‘Bench Work’ day working on the steering column. It’s actually not as bad as I thought it was going to be. The top bearing plastic cage disintegrated at some point before the Jeep came to me, so the steering wheel was flopping about. The key/lock switch was completely missing, and some of the other parts were in a box where the back seat should’ve been. I ordered everything new that I could and started in on it today. My buddy Dennis Allen at KWFR was rockin’ the jams today, and even hooked me up with Red Barchetta to kick off the 5-O’clock Fast Lane with a shout out. Best DJ EVER! Thanks, Man!
Here we getting started. The steering wheel came right off with a few taps of a rubber mallet… mostly because it was missing the wheel nut, but I’m glad I didn’t have to use a puller. This was the hardest part of the day, because Dennis Allen dropped Red Barchetta that I requested on the 5-O’clock Fast Lane, and it’s hard to get any work done when you’re rockin’ out to one of your favorite tunes and playing the air drums. LOL!Not too much gunk, as much as everything just being tight with a bunch of dried up dusty/grease grime everywhere. A little PB Blaster and some patience had it apart in no time.After extracting what was left of the upper bearing, some Purple Power, and some carb cleaner, things are all cleaned up (except the rusty dust on the column itself), and I stopped here for the day since I need a 1/8-1/4″ ID cylinder to drive the inner bearing surface onto the shaft. It’ll be waiting for me next weekend.Some of the pieces and parts I worked on cleaning up. I’ll have to route the stray wire for the shift indicator’s back light when I install the new signal combo switch – that’ll be fun. I just hope I remember how it all goes back together.
