Steering Column Play And Horn

Hi folks,
The steering column in my 1975 has up and down play amounting to over an inch. In other words, I can pull out on the steering wheel, and the whole steering column shaft moves up and down. Also, the threaded end of the steering column doesn’t have a hollow center where the horn switch assembly might fit. Any suggestions?

 

Welcome to the forum.

Mine just has a small amount of play, but I'm fixing that w/ the 2605 7095 universal joint sphere and the Kent Moore J-41688 Centering Tool.

It is very common for the poorly designed initial internal spring that spreads the sphere halves to stop that part preload, causing slop.

This latest design part has an excellent spring that maintains the preload.

It could be other parts, but proper steering column disassembly is the best way to understand the condition of the internal parts.

 

I have 75 CJ 5 and as you know the steering is not exact. I am not sure if this is what you are experiencing but for several weeks I felt like I could pull the steering wheel up towards me a little bit more than usual. Then one day, the Borgeson steering shaft pulled away from the steering box. There was a loud bang and then the steering wheel spun free. Fortunately, I had finished the turn and was going straight and so I slowly faded off to the side of the road into a field. It turns out the collar that keeps the shaft and little CV joint looking thing attached to the steering box has a pin that screws down into the depression on the steering box input shaft. That is then locked into place with a little nut. The pin had sheared but not fallen out and the nut still held it in place. From the outside you never know anything was wrong. Through bumps and whoopdeedos it had worked its way loose enough so that the sucker just fell off. The steering shaft then spun around not doing anything until I coasted to a stop. Anyway it is a quick check of a low-tech problem with a big payoff if you catch something. Good luck.

 

I had looked at those borgeson shafts and wondered just how reliable those lock pins were. I finally decided to just rebuild my factory set up that uses the lock bolt.

 

The horn wire is not fed through like the older models. It used a contact brush that wrapped around a contact on the steering shaft and attached to the opening on the underside and the wire went to the Spartan turn signal control. https://www.ebay.com/itm/154363053179

 

Thank you! In dissecting the old steering column I found out that the previous owner made some not so good changes. I managed to find another steering column shaft that indeed does have the brass collar, and will be rebuilding the steering from horn cap to the steering box.