Electric outage when steering wheel tilts down

[OSU-VETTE]

Hi, hoping someone has seen this, no luck searching. In my 85, the tilt wheel has play in it, and when I push down on it, I get an electrical problemarking brake light comes on

• Radio goes off
• Windows won't work
• HVAC fan inoperable

If I push up on the steering wheel or leave the tilt all the way up, no problem. Any clue what wiring would cause this? I am hesitant to tear apart the column to tighten it up, although will look to see if it is easy based on a few links and pics I found here.

Any help is appreciate, thanks!

 

[John Robinson]

It sounds like you have a skinned wire in the steering column. I had a similar situation and got some advice from another member to look at the wiring run down the inside of the steering column. I did this several years ago so I am a little sketchy on all the steps I took to get this fixed.

1. Under the dash you will find a bracket that holds the steering column up against the dash. You will have to remove it so you can fish the wires in the steering column back up through the steering column.

2. You will have to unplug them from under the dash and put a secure line on them to be able to pull them back through the steering column when you are done.

As you can see from my photos I found a bare spot on the wire caused by the tilt wheel. I cut it out used heat shrink and soldered a new splice in the wiring harness to repair the bad wire.

As for your loose steering wheel tilt I have no clue what your problem is there but maybe someone will come along that has repaired that problem.

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll72/John-
68/CruiseWiring008-1-1.jpg

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll72/John-68/DSC00203-1-1.jpg

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll72/John-68/SkinnedWire009-1.jpg
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll72/John-68/SkinnedWire020-1-1-1.jpg

 

[LLC5]

Hi, hoping someone has seen this, no luck searching. In my 85, the tilt wheel has play in it, and when I push down on it, I get an electrical problemarking brake light comes on

• Radio goes off
• Windows won't work
• HVAC fan inoperable

If I push up on the steering wheel or leave the tilt all the way up, no problem. Any clue what wiring would cause this? I am hesitant to tear apart the column to tighten it up, although will look to see if it is easy based on a few links and pics I found here.

Any help is appreciate, thanks!

If you have a coulmn mounted ignition switch, then it is possible that when you are pushing down on the loose steering wheel that you are in turn pushing the ignition switch rod down at the same time and moving the contacts in the electrical part of the ignition switch (mounted on top of the steering column under the dash near the firewall) and actually turning off your accessory feeds. Good luck with it.

 

[OSU-VETTE]

All good thoughts, I drove it around again this afternoon, no problems, which of course is even more annoying!

I will take a look at trying to tighten it up and see if there is anything obvious before I start feeding wires back up through the column.

Thanks guys.

 

[boomdriver]

If you have a coulmn mounted ignition switch, then it is possible that when you are pushing down on the loose steering wheel that you are in turn pushing the ignition switch rod down at the same time and moving the contacts in the electrical part of the ignition switch (mounted on top of the steering column under the dash near the firewall) and actually turning off your accessory feeds. Good luck with it.

:BOW


Good call....

makes sense. loose collumn, not flexing as it should. Compressing and placing tension on the ign-rod to the switch.
yup. I like it !

 

[OSU-VETTE]

If you have a coulmn mounted ignition switch, then it is possible that when you are pushing down on the loose steering wheel that you are in turn pushing the ignition switch rod down at the same time and moving the contacts in the electrical part of the ignition switch (mounted on top of the steering column under the dash near the firewall) and actually turning off your accessory feeds. Good luck with it.

Wow, I have no clue how to look for that one, this has to be within the steering column? I have had the wheel off years ago when I replaced it, will need to look for the puller.

 

[LLC5]

Wow, I have no clue how to look for that one, this has to be within the steering column? I have had the wheel off years ago when I replaced it, will need to look for the puller.

The problem that I related to is usually in the tilt/telescopic area of the coulmn. If indeed the problem is in that area, some special tools will be required along with some very extensive knowledge. I would let a professional do it if you have never been inside one, and make sure that the person doing the work has repaired this exact same problem many times in the past. Basically, it is really easy to get wrong so be careful who you have do the work. Good luck with it.

 

[OSU-VETTE]

LLC5 - thanks for the guidance I may have the tilt tightened up first and see if that fixes it, that is a relatively straight forward fix and hopefully it does the trick.

Will update everyone once I get it started!

 

[LLC5]

LLC5 - thanks for the guidance I may have the tilt tightened up first and see if that fixes it, that is a relatively straight forward fix and hopefully it does the trick.

Will update everyone once I get it started!

That's true if it is just loose pivot bolts and the problem is fixed by tightening them, then the job is fairly easy. Dissasembly and re-assembly of the pivot and tilt/telescopic area is where previous experience is very helpful. Hopefully it just needs to be tightened.

 

[OSU-VETTE]

Found a solid guy who has fixed the tilt and short problem a number of times, he claims he can do it for $80, so I plan to let him try! Will let everyone know what I find.

Thanks again for all the assist.