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Q & A: 73 Midget Steering

On my 73' Midget, I have been investigating the cause, of a small amount of play in the steering. At freeway speeds, it's more than enough to be annoying and cause you to constantly be correcting. Tonight I finally identified the exact cause. The play is located at the steering column junction. The point at which the smaller section of the column, slips into the larger section. The point where the column is designed to colapse into itself, if a front end impact occurs, so the driver doesn't get impaled.

Is there any remedy for this, other than just replacing the column? Also, when the column is attached to the rack, how much of the splined pinion from the rack is exposed? It seems like mine might not be down far enough. I assembled the car about 6 years ago, and I vaguely remember having a very hard time getting the column down and attached to the rack.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks, Chuck

Chuck!

Most older columns have developed that freeplay by now. Or, it might be that your forceful fitting of the column to the steering pinion broke the small nylon pins. On the other hand, those nylon pins fracture when the colu... read more