[mrennie]

Originally Posted by HWYSTR455

Do you still have the old bearing? Do you know what the inner diameter is?

Yes I do still have the old bearing. I just measured it in 2 spots and come up with an ID of 1.011"

[HWYSTR455]

That's probably what I got, I was getting 1.007-1.009, could be my caliper is a C.H. off.

Kind of surprised that the Inline Tube bushing is stating to be 'correct' and is off that much, they usually are better about that kind of stuff.

You wouldn't happen to have a pic of how your bearing fit into the bushing would you? I'm wondering if I installed it right or not.

EDIT: Is that one pic in post #10 of the original bushing & bearing how it is installed?


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[mrennie]

Originally Posted by HWYSTR455

Is that one pic in post #10 of the original bushing & bearing how it is installed?

Sorry for the late reply, just got back from camping.

Yes, the pics in post #10 show the original bearing in the black bushing as it came out of my column.

[HWYSTR455]

Cool, thank you, think I may pull it back out just to make sure I inserted it all the way into the bushing. Uhg.

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[HWYSTR455]

UPDATE:

After doing some homework for another forum member, I found some info regarding the poor fitment and slop from the lower steering column bearings.

Also found out that some have had issues with some of the repop intermediate columns too.

Here's a reference thread from another forum:

https://www.pontiactransamforum.com/...-upgrade.1532/

It's an article for the firebird/camaros, but appears to be the same bearing. Here's a YouTube vid on it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vy2DbJItXQ8

The upgrade bearing is from Wolff Engineering, and appears to be a major improvement over current offerings.

Here's a direct link to the Wolff Engineering part:

https://www.wolffeng.com/store/p2/M1...e_Bearing.html

Pretty excited to find this, I ordered one for a auto and one for a manual column, will post info when I get it.


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[HWYSTR455]

UPDATE:

Finally getting around to this and went to do the install. Keep in mind, the bearing is made basically for non-tilt columns, and mine is a tilt.

Recap - The Crown and other bearings were 'sloppy' in the column housing, and although I did try to decrease the column opening by bending the 'tabs' in some, after minimal use, they just bend back out and returned to the sloppy condition. This what I can tell was basically because of the outer retainer that goes on after and retains the bearing in the column, it's inner diameter was not tight enough to keep it from wobbing back out.

Went to install the Wolff bearing, and, because of the back drive/shift tube, the bearing wouldn't go far enough into the column housing. (see pics)

What I ended up doing was using just the Wolff retainer, which fit snuggly on the outer diameter of the column housing, and preventing it from returning to the wobbed out position/size.

The retainer has set screws, and those protrude the outer column housing thru the slots that the retaining clip would pass thru, so it positively retains the bearing. Due to the tight fit of the retainer, it won't wobb out.

You could trim the back drive/shift tube about a 1/3" (".2770" -.3006"), but that requires the tube to be removed, I.E., disassembly of the column. (uhg).

I will eventually get around to doing that, but for now, the retainer seems to be working well with the Wolff retainer. I will put it to use and do an update later.


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