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I posted a while back with a few problems on my 1991 900t. First, the horn hadn't worked since I bought the car in June. No SRS flashing light though (though the bulb is there). The steering wheel could be moved up and down and side-to-side maybe half an inch in any direction, very wobbly (but not moving front-to-back, toward or away from the driver).
Lately, the steering has become difficult -- hard to turn the wheel much, and hard to unturn the wheel when making a turn. Made for pretty jerky driving.
I read some posts here about a plastic bushing that fails and causes the wheel to move like that, which ends up destroying the clockspring for the air bag and horn.
I debated whether to have someone professional install the springy thing and bushing since I'm not too mechanically inclined. But I got impatient and decided to try it. The steering wheel was a big pain to remove, but it came off. Leaving the big nut on a bit when pulling was a great idea so the wheel doesn't smack you in the face when it flies off!
The clockspring was definitely toasted - broken into a few pieces. There was no trace of the plastic bushing except for some small plastic bits left over in the bearing.
When I reinstalled the plastic bushing, I went crazy trying to figure out why the steering shaft was still wobbly. Duh, it's wobbly until you reinstall the rubber-ring-with-the-ball-bearings-in-it! I put some grease in the bearings since they did look a bit worse for wear since the plastic bushing bits scraped them up some.
Anyway, got it all put back together. Hooked up the battery. Put the key in and started it, while ducking out the door just in case. It started (always nice!), no SRS light still (thank goodness!), and the horn works!! Time for a test drive to see if it cured the tough steering, but I'm betting it did. No more steering wheel wobble either (until that dumb $5 bushing fails again).
The Haynes Nine-Thousand repair book actually describes removing the clockspring (the 900 Bentley only tells you to go to a dealer). Between that book and this board, the job got done. Thanks!
* Glad I waited to post this. I test drove it. Still tough steering, not continuously difficult through the wheel's range of motion. Like it's easy for a bit, then it gets tougher, then easier. U-joint? It came on suddenly, I figured it was part of the spring/buushing problem. Darn! Any ideas?
posted by 66.158.16...
, Fri, 17 Oct 2008 03:58:26
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