loose steering shaft

[bcmaxx]

Hi the steering shaft is very loose in our o1 expy. You can grab it where it goes through the firewall and get some good movement. The couplers and u joints are tight. Is it safe to do a roadtrip with? It appears to me like it cannot fail by design. But want to be sure

 

[stamp11127]

Depends on which direction is loose. It can be loose turning or pulling/pushing away from you.
I would find out the cause before taking a trip. It didn't come from the factory that way...
Rotational looseness can be caused by tie rods, tie rod ends or a rack that has had it.

 

[IMINYOURCHAIR]

pitman arm could be worn...mine was so bad it allowed about 1/4 turn in the wheel on top of the normal play. It took me f o r e v e r to get mine off. it has rusted to the shaft somehow. If this is the case, you will want to get a good hacksaw blade set and a torch to heat it. that, and lots of pb blaster.

now, if the play is between the steering box and shaft, then you've got problems, if the input and output shaft turn at the same time w/o play there then it could be the pitman arm, idler arm or inner/outer tie rod ends in that order.

when you say you can grab and turn the shaft, when you do that, what else is turning with that shaft?

 

[bcmaxx]

its in the lower steering colum shaft. connecting steering wheel to the steering gearbox. not rotational play but you can grab the shaft in the middle and move it side to side, splined u joint couplers on wither end are good, and tight ( its in whatever slip spline) set up they have

 

[Canadian Expy]

I have play in mine also, (spline area) never effected the steering. Its like it never fit tight from Ford

 

[bcmaxx]

got a used one, dorman are still in production, ford was over $400 my cost. the used has no play like this one