Doing some shakedown runs around town in my 67 Coronet and when I got on it once the steering wheel came out about 1/2 from the column. Column is solid and tight and so is the steering wheel.

Why do I have this play? Is this also moving inside the coupler at the steering box?

Perhaps the shear pins in the collapsible steering shaft are broken. The upper section of the column will come up with the shaft, if that's the case. Grab the wheel and pull towards you (car off and not moving) to see what happens.

I have and it only pulled up about a 1/2" then it stops.

It shouldn't pull up at all unless that safety feature has broken.

Is there a shear pin replacement kit? Steering wheel also is kind of sloppy. Moves side to side, up and down, just enough to make me think something is wrong. As I said before the column is solid and don't move at all.

Chrysler used to have a repair kit. No more, unless you can find one through ebay or an NOS vendor.

Some people have performed their own repair with nylon pins/screws or experimented with injecting glues. The alternative is to find a donor shaft that hasn't been collapsed. Either way the column should be removed and disassembled - which is not as hard as it sounds.

Lateral movement of the wheel suggests a bad upper bearing or some other breakage but that's not likely. Again, disassemble to pinpoint the problem.

Ok, thanks for the tips. Bad thing about it is that I had it removed and painted it nice. I wish I would have noticed the problem then.

Yeah, that sucks. If you do some searching you'll find a number of treads around on the subject. Here's one: http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php?topic=5404.0

Somethings up with that upper bearing and the snap ring as the nylon injected stuff and the coupler has little to do with the up and down locating.

67 doesn't have a collapsable column.. 1/2" is the movement allowed but the coupler... Does the outer column move or just the shaft/steering wheel?

If it's just the shaft/steering wheel then as mentioned about probably a snap ring has failed/is missing... I just did a column out of a 71 Cuda that was missing both of those snap rings & a few other parts.. Lots of people have had their hands in these cars..

What year was the collapsible shaft introduced?

68

I talked to another guy I know who works on Mopars and he told me the same thing. To check to see if the snap ring came loose or is missing at the bearing. So I'm going to check that first. Yes, the whole top of the column is loose. Not just the steering wheel. Thanks for all the replys.

I thought so but I'm kind of sure my problem is the snap ring. I'll check that 1st. then look at the shaft.

The one time I had that problem it was loose nuts on the two bolts that hold the collar on. That was on a 66 Dart many years ago.

To fix this you will need to pull your steering wheel. Under the steering wheel are two nuts that need to be tightened. If you are not carefully the nuts will just tighten up, but if not you will need to turn the bolts so they lock into their retainer. Easier to find out pulling the car into the garage than driving down the road.

Thanks, for the info. Once I get a puller tomorrow or Monday I will try and solve the issue and post the results.

I had and fought much of the same issue last fall. Two things were wrong...The first issue I had was the whole dang steering wheel coming nearly off while driving. Upon examination, the coupler where the steering shaft meets the box had come apart, allowing the whole shaft to pull through. I replaced the coupler thing, and sure enough it did it again. Looking further into it, the large white bearing had broken onside the column. That caused the shaft to be pulled out of the coupler, especially on hard acceleration. Once I replaced the bearing and the coupler parts again it's been fine ever since.