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Steering wheel spins freely, what broke?

A

aeidian

New member
I was changing out the oil pan gasket on my 99 GTP and I dropped the cradle while supporting the engine with an engine support bar. Got it all put back together and didn't see any leaks, got ready to take it for a ride and the steering wheel just spins freely, no resistance and the wheels don't turn. The rack needs to be replaced because it's leaking under the boots, just figured I would get to it some other time as it's not major right now. I suspect I broke something when I lowered the cradle, but suggestions on what to check?
 


Steering is bolted to rack which is bolted to the firewall.
How far did you drop the cradle?

Edited: Now that I think about it I think the rack is bolted to the cradle.
 
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Intermediate shaft....basically the shaft that connects the steering column to the rack.

That would be my first guess.
 


Looking at your firewall from inside or outside, see that big rubber/plastic boot that the steering goes through? Ok.. Right at the spot where the firewall is..there is the steering rod with two flat sides coming down from the column. Then there is a slide with a baby torx head set screw that should ride in a groove on the shaft and keep it together. When you lowered the cradle, the rack put enough pressure on the slide that it came apart. It doesn't happen often..but it can happen.

The way to fix this..
Take an 11mm socket and pull that boot up off the rack. Remove the bolt holding the knuckle/universal to the rack. Now in your hand is the knuckle that has the slide side on it. Loosen that torx set screw. Now for the painful part. Without being able to see it you want to slide those two pieces back together, then put th knuckle back on the rack and reinstall the 11mm bolt. You'll have part of one hand to do this with and it'll see impossible. The easy way to do it is get a buddy and a razor knife. Hop under the dash and cut yourself a nice access slit into the boot. Buddy can now hold the knuckle or be inside the car to talk you through aligning the two pieces. Once you get it, tighten the set screw and duct tape the boot. Drink a beer..you earned it.

I let racks hang all the time and this typically doesn't happen. Dagger's car did this to me twice (cradle was dropped about 10 times) and I was able to get it back together by myself w/o cutting the boot. Crbqust's did this also and it took the two of us about two hours to get it back together with a nice access slit in the boot.
 
BillBoost37 said:
Looking at your firewall from inside or outside, see that big rubber/plastic boot that the steering goes through? Ok.. Right at the spot where the firewall is..there is the steering rod with two flat sides coming down from the column. Then there is a slide with a baby torx head set screw that should ride in a groove on the shaft and keep it together. When you lowered the cradle, the rack put enough pressure on the slide that it came apart. It doesn't happen often..but it can happen.

The way to fix this..
Take an 11mm socket and pull that boot up off the rack. Remove the bolt holding the knuckle/universal to the rack. Now in your hand is the knuckle that has the slide side on it. Loosen that torx set screw. Now for the painful part. Without being able to see it you want to slide those two pieces back together, then put th knuckle back on the rack and reinstall the 11mm bolt. You'll have part of one hand to do this with and it'll see impossible. The easy way to do it is get a buddy and a razor knife. Hop under the dash and cut yourself a nice access slit into the boot. Buddy can now hold the knuckle or be inside the car to talk you through aligning the two pieces. Once you get it, tighten the set screw and duct tape the boot. Drink a beer..you earned it.

I let racks hang all the time and this typically doesn't happen. Dagger's car did this to me twice (cradle was dropped about 10 times) and I was able to get it back together by myself w/o cutting the boot. Crbqust's did this also and it took the two of us about two hours to get it back together with a nice access slit in the boot.
Click to expand...

I've read about pulling the shaft completely out and that seems easier to just pull the shaft completely out than to finagle it with it in the car, will I be able to remove the shaft and accomplish this or because of the damage done will that not be possible? I appreciate you taking the time to write such a detailed response.
 


steeringshaft.jpg


Got under the car today and looked, boot is mashed over and the part of the shaft I have circled is just sticking out the end of it not attached to anything. I don't see anyway to do anything without dropping at least the rear of the cradle, the boot and end of the shaft is wedged and facing the driver side. I'm gonna have to drop the cradle in the back just to be able to maneuver the parts around. Is this piece the telescoping shaft part? I'm thinking I need to drop the cradle in the rear, disconnect the shaft inside the car from the column, then move it down and connect that mid shaft then raise the cradle back up and reattach the shaft to the column, sound about right?
 
That is exactly the part of the shaft that I was talking about having come apart.

I forgot that you likely would have to lower the cradle a little. I did it on Chris's but not on Mikes. You can do it with two people w/o taking the shaft off the steering column with two people in the way I described it. The only potential issue you have here is if you turned the steering wheel too far when they were disconnected, it would damage the clock spring. You'll know once it's back together if that happened, because your airbag and steering controls won't work.
 
yeah i hope you didn't spin the wheel around like a kid on an amusement park ride, or you just tossed out a nice chunk of money, the clock springs not cheap.
 
BillBoost37 said:
That is exactly the part of the shaft that I was talking about having come apart.

I forgot that you likely would have to lower the cradle a little. I did it on Chris's but not on Mikes. You can do it with two people w/o taking the shaft off the steering column with two people in the way I described it. The only potential issue you have here is if you turned the steering wheel too far when they were disconnected, it would damage the clock spring. You'll know once it's back together if that happened, because your airbag and steering controls won't work.
Click to expand...

I turned it a few times, then back to where it was once I figured out it wasn't working. Any way to check this besides putting them all back together? Which steering controls are you referring to, like the stereo controls? If they work now that means I'm good?
 
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just make sure you have the wheel back to where it was when you started, if you went 2 full turns in any direction or less you should be ok, if you went more than 3 full turns good chance its toast.

the clock spring is located under the steering wheel, if you broke it your airbag light will come on and your radio controls for the steering wheel will not work.

so if none of that happens you'll be ok.
 


scottydoggs said:
just make sure you have the wheel back to where it was when you started, if you went 2 full turns in any direction or less you should be ok, if you went more than 3 full turns good chance its toast.

the clock spring is located under the steering wheel, if you broke it your airbag light will come on and your radio controls for the steering wheel will not work.

so if none of that happens you'll be ok.
Click to expand...

So if my airbag light isn't on and my radio controls work, I'm fine, right?
 
Scratch that, I thought the light wasn't on, but I just checked and both the SRS light is on and the radio controls don't work. There a write up on how to fix this that you all can point me too?
 
not that ive seen here.

i did mine, it wa sin a regal, close enough tho.

you need to remove the battery cable first. then remove the airbag from the wheel, how you remove it on a gp i dont really know.

the take the steering wheel off, you will need a puller to get it off. also un clip the radio controls before the wheel comes off. and the horn ground, you push it in and tun it, it comes right out.

then take the plastic off the top and bottom of the column, regal had a torx screw on the bottom and the back side was kinda a hinge clip. gp im not 100 % sure.

now that all that's out of the way, you will see the clock spring, it has a spring clip holding it in place, remove that and it comes out.

at the bottom of the dash, where the obd2 port is, if you look next to it, you will see a yellow plug and a black plug right next to each other, un plug them both, those are from the clock spring. you may need to take the lower plastic and steel knee bolster off to get the zip ties cut off the old clock springs wires from the rest of them, mine had 2 zip ties holding them all together.


once out it looks like this.


474695950_tp.jpg
 
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