gen 1 tilt steering question

[rangerstzz]

I have a '87 ranger with tilt steering which has developed a lot of " slop " in the tilt mechanizim over the last couple of years, I pulled the plastic covers and the wheel off but now I can't see any fastners or anyway to take the shaft apart to get to the sloppy tilt parts, nothing in my manual, is this thing serviceable? anyone fixed this on a gen 1?? gen 2 is differant

 

[AllanD]

Remove the steering wheel and the upper and lower covers.

Take a #2 Phillips and remove the wiper control
Take a T-20 driver and remove the multifuction directional switch.

Behind this there are two 8mm bolts with 12mm or 13mm heads.

they are loose.

Tighten them.

Reassemble

Enjoy.

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[rangerstzz]

thanks for the info, that sounds way toooo easy, will get back to you......

 

[AllanD]

BTW after you have them BOTH "tight" remove ONE at a time,
apply loctite and reinstall or they WILL loosen up again.

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[rangerstzz]

AllanD , you were right, and a free fix too [ been a while since I had one of those] funny how the steering wheel bolt has lock tight, the tilt lever had locktight but those two 13mm bolts don't seem to have a trace, I put lock washers on them, not too fond of lock tight, on my third breaker bar since wrenching on rangers, ford used waaaay tooooo much of that stuff on everything, wonder how they missed those two bolts, big thanks for the help!

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I can't wait to try this on mine this weekend. I figured it was just shot from someone using it to pull themselves in and never really pursued it any farther.

 

[AllanD]

Lock washers don't.

the problem with Ford's loctite is that they use it even on bolts made
with selflocking threads.

Personally on my column when I get a free moment (or have to pull it apart
again when it eventually loosens anyway) I'm going to drill the bolt heads for
safety wire and wire the phuckers.

Checking the column for play is on my actual printed "pre road trip"
maintainance checklist.

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[JoshT]

Say Allan you seem to be one of the best guys here when it comes to hitting the pick-n-pull. If I wanted to put a tilt column in my 84 what would I need to look at getting one out of? It'd obviously have to be for a manual transmission vehicle to have the right set up. What year models should I look at. I'm guessing I'd need the entire steering column and connected parts. If it matters I would be installing an aftermarket steering wheel. Would any column from an 83-88 standard transmission RBV bolt in?

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

First gens all had the same collum, the autos have a floor shifter which has nothing to do with the collum

 

[JoshT]

As much as I've been around RBVs, and as long as I've been around this forum I don't think I've ever seen the inside of an automatic first gen Ranger that was intact. Good to know that all of the steering columns were the same in that respect. Thanks for the help.

 

[rangerstzz]

I can't wait to try this on mine this weekend. I figured it was just shot from someone using it to pull themselves in and never really pursued it any farther.

I figured the same from hoisting myself in and almost all of the ones in the wrecker had various amounts of slop

Lock washers don't.

the problem with Ford's loctite is that they use it even on bolts made
with selflocking threads.

Personally on my column when I get a free moment (or have to pull it apart
again when it eventually loosens anyway) I'm going to drill the bolt heads for
safety wire and wire the phuckers.

Checking the column for play is on my actual printed "pre road trip"
maintainance checklist.

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But now with my newly aquirred knowledge, its a easy job to go back in there and loctite them or follow your lead and drill them.

 

[AllanD]

I actually have a bolt head drilling jig that makes it easy...

I was planning on drilling the heads of the bolts holding my headers on,
but it hasn't proved necissary. the "Lok" coils I used (helicoils that produce
self-locking threads) have proven sufficient.

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[pdr51]

This works

Wish I had known this 2 years ago. Discovered those bolts today myself and he's absolutely right. Doing that removed all the slop. Good idea about the locktite.

 

[AllanD]

I've actually had another idea on this that I want to try on one of my spare steering columns....

where the aluminum casting os bolted to those two steel "flags"
on the column...

what I want to do is drill into the flags and 1/8" into the aluminum and
insert a short ~3/16" lenght of 3/8" tubing to act as a tubular dowel
to positively locate the tilt trunion to the top of the column
and returning the bolts to what the bolts should be, a fastener that
clamps the two pieces together.

If you've ever seen the little tubular dowels that positively locate the
A/C compressor to the A/C-P/S bracket on a 1992-up 4.0 you'll have
a clear idea what I'm thinking.

I'm not sure if there is sufficient material to do this

an alternate thought is to put a blob of JB weld on the shank of the bolt
just before final tightening to fill in the annular area around the bolt shank...

This is an annoying periodic problem

Bear in mind I have just over 400,000 miles on this particular collection of parts and another 250,000 on my prior bronco2's, so let's just say I've had a bit too much time
to get annoyed by this exact problem.

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