<VV> Steering Wheel "Clunk"

[Bryan Blackwell]

Hi Gary,

Our '66 had a strange 'looseness' in the steering wheel even after I rebuilt the box.  I couldn't figure out what the problem was until I happened to pull on the steering wheel doing a hard-harder test and noted there was about an 1/8" up and down of play.  If you look in the 66 supplement in the steering section, you'll see there's a lower bearing and spring at the far end of the column, down at the toe panel.  The spring basically holds the whole thing in tension, and ours was too loose.  One of our club members had a couple columns, looking at his I could see that spring had just a tiny bit of space between the coils.  Following the shop manual I replaced the lower bearing parts, then assembled the column to within the specified .005 to .030" of axial play, and that solved the problem.

--Bryan

> On Jun 2, 2021, at 8:44 PM, edward szuch via VirtualVairs <virtualvairs at corvair.org> wrote:
> 
> I have a 66 Corsa that needed the turn signal switch replaced due to
> corrosion of the contacts.  I'm having trouble getting rid of a clunk that
> is heard and felt when I turn from one direction to the other during a
> parking type maneuver.  It seems to be coming from the top of the column
> where the directional switch attaches to the directional housing.  Looking
> at the shop manual, the upper bearing is in the switch so when steering
> inputs are transferred into the bearing and housing, the housing shifts on
> the outer mast jacket causing the clunk?
> I've tried shifting the switch/bearing up and down in the housing in the
> hole clearances to avoid an alignment bias without success.  I've tried
> different torques on the switch fasteners to allow some slight shifting of
> the assembly to avoid the clunk but nothing has worked.  I'm afraid to go
> too low for obvious safety reasons.
> Any ideas or experiences that might fix this would be appreciated.  The car
> has relatively low miles, 67,000 and all other components seem to be in
> good working order.  This only started after I changed the turn signal
> switch.
> Thanks very much!
> Gary Szuch