Wobbly tilt steering column repair w/Marc H pins

[tomtom72]

Yea, some one hit my rear & cracked the bumper cover. In the General section there is a thread about it. It happened last May I think. Brett was nice to me and sold me a bumper he had from a 91 that he had bought as a project car I think? I fixed most of the damage myself and you could hardly see the cracks unless you had your nose on top of them. It's just been one long argument between me and GEICO about parts availability. They subscribe to a parts data base and it has inaccurate info about what you can still buy for a ZR-1. The good thing is that the body shop said I can have my OE bumper! So I will play with it and see if I can fix it. All I figure to shoot for is close the cracks from the backside and stop them from traveling (if urethane dose that?) and have no paint work involved and if it works I'll put it back on my car.

I just hate to have any "outsiders" touch my car. It causes me anxiety and makes me think I should just go buy a C5 or something like that.

[bad-zr1]

My 90 does not have the plastic covers to remove and gain access to the pin. Does anyone's 90 MY have these covers? Is it 91-95 MY only?
Thanks,
Jim

Originally Posted by HAWAIIZR-1

As we all know, Marc Haibeck has solutions for our cars and lives and breathes for the survival of our ZR-1s and LT5s. Although this is a standard Corvette and other GM problem with people trying to use their steering wheel to get in/out of their cars, he came up with a fix for the most common problem.

Mine was experiencing the wobble from top right to bottom left if that is the right way to describe it. I was going to go the domestic misfits link route: http://domesticmisfits.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=124 until I consulted with Hammer (John) and Marc about this issue.

Marc has the enlarged pin that he sells for $50 and even though I thought it was expensive for a pin, I feel that it is well worth it now. Due to the close tolerances these are made and the small order, he explained the price. He said I should only need one for the left side so I only bought one and figured if I was not happy, then I can do the other side.

So the repair is very easy with minimal dismantling (sorry, no pictures).

1. Remove the hush panel or what ever they call it under where your knees are if sitting.

2. Remove the aluminum looking knee bolster thing with 4 bolts (10mm).

3. Remove the tilt column knob by loosening with a small wrench (did not note the size).

4. Loosen the dash gauge cluster bezel trim (4 screws/phillips head) to manuever it out of the way and ensure nothing hangs on it. Not sure if you really need to do this, but I found it hanging when I lowered the column and did not want to take a chance.

5. Remove the two 15mm bolts and bracket that hold the column up and lower slowly.

6. Remove the two plastic covers that cover the area shown here to expose the tilt column pin that will be replaced



Photo courtesy of Marc

7. Use a screw to remove the pin by threading in and pulling if really loose or like I did and use the Lisle tilt wheel pivot pin puller (Ebay $8) like I did. The threaded hole in the top is where the tilt column rod was and right below to the left you can see the pin that you will replace.

8. After I removed the old pin I simple put Marc's enlarged pin in and lifted the column a little to push it in by thumb as far as it could go and tapped it with the hammer. Then I used a brass punch to whack that sucker in all the way until flush.

9. Put the column back up with the bracket and two 15mm head bolts nice and tight. Then everything else in reverse order.

10. Test out the tilt and feel the different. Almost like new with very little movement and it feels solid. I'm happy and won't try to do anything else. Marc stated that even when new these cars had a little bit of movement and might be all that I am feeling because it is solid feeling.

Next project is to remove the stock airbag/bus wheel and put on the Momo Competition wheel with NRG hub and quick release/lock. No wheel in the way should make exiting an entering easier as well as not leaning on the wheel to get out. Have to just do at least 50sit ups a day to strengten my stomach muscles. Big Thanks Marc and John.

Craig

[HAWAIIZR-1]

Originally Posted by bad-zr1

My 90 does not have the plastic covers to remove and gain access to the pin. Does anyone's 90 MY have these covers? Is it 91-95 MY only?
Thanks,
Jim

Hello Jim,

My car is a 90 MY and there are two pieces that cover that area. One is shown in the photo and there is another curved cover piece too that is not shown in the photo. You mean to say that your car is all open and bare in that area shown?

[HAWAIIZR-1]

Originally Posted by tomtom72

Yea, some one hit my rear & cracked the bumper cover. In the General section there is a thread about it. It happened last May I think. Brett was nice to me and sold me a bumper he had from a 91 that he had bought as a project car I think? I fixed most of the damage myself and you could hardly see the cracks unless you had your nose on top of them. It's just been one long argument between me and GEICO about parts availability. They subscribe to a parts data base and it has inaccurate info about what you can still buy for a ZR-1. The good thing is that the body shop said I can have my OE bumper! So I will play with it and see if I can fix it. All I figure to shoot for is close the cracks from the backside and stop them from traveling (if urethane dose that?) and have no paint work involved and if it works I'll put it back on my car.

I just hate to have any "outsiders" touch my car. It causes me anxiety and makes me think I should just go buy a C5 or something like that.

Sorry to hear about this Tom and I can't imagine having to deal with this and often wondered what happens if you get hit in the back with the limited availability of parts and dealing with insurance companies. Hopefully insurance does not sky rocket when they know that some of the parts are high or NLA. I almost don't want to drive mine here since I can even get any collision insurance at all since the car is too old.

[bad-zr1]

Thanks Hawaii. I just checked and mine does have the 2 plastic covers. I had both pins and the tilt hub replaced about 3 years ago and so I had to completly disassemble the column at the time. Did not remember those pieces, but they are there.
Thanks.

[Pete]

Originally Posted by HAWAIIZR-1

Yeah, I have even sent Marc money for his help; he never asked for it but I have used him so much for technical advice. One year I even sent him an Entertainment coupon book for his area.

I'm surprised that you're not burning your own chips by now? I'm just getting into it and learning, but will do this for the future as there is so much information out and there difficult to do my mail order for fine tuning.

That's is very nice of you Craig.
So tell us what Marc thinks of the Stage I cams.LOL

Pete

[HAWAIIZR-1]

Originally Posted by bad-zr1

Thanks Hawaii. I just checked and mine does have the 2 plastic covers. I had both pins and the tilt hub replaced about 3 years ago and so I had to completly disassemble the column at the time. Did not remember those pieces, but they are there.
Thanks.

Great news; I figured so as you would have seen that big hole there.

[HAWAIIZR-1]

Originally Posted by Pete

That's is very nice of you Craig.
So tell us what Marc thinks of the Stage I cams.LOL

Pete

I have never asked him, but I remember seeing on one of his presentations that he does not recommend them for 350 motors. Aaron Scott on the other hand stated he designed them for 350 motors. I'm just waiting to either pass or fail emissions for good so I can put the headers/xpipe/mufflers on and dyno this baby to see what kind of numbers it puts down..............

[jrd1990zr1]

Craig,

This is great news, I have to fix my charcoal 90 and was looking at going the domesticmisfits route. Do you remember what Marc calls or has numbered this part?

Thanks for the help. Hope things are improving in Japan.

John

[HAWAIIZR-1]

Originally Posted by jrd1990zr1

Craig,

This is great news, I have to fix my charcoal 90 and was looking at going the domesticmisfits route. Do you remember what Marc calls or has numbered this part?

Thanks for the help. Hope things are improving in Japan.

John

Hi John,

You'll have to call him to order or you can email him if he has your credit card on file. He just called it tilt column pin or something like that and no part number or reference on his site.

You're welcome and thanks for your concern. I'm fortunate to not be affected by the tragic events, but they still have a lot of issue with the power plant and I'm sure more to follow from that.

Craig