Hi Guys, a question regarding our steering wheel. I want to adjust my steering wheel so that it has a smaller gap between the steering wheel and the back piece.

A little background about my car. The previous owner had a 2004 Evo 8 with 50K miles and got into an accident. The insurance totaled it but he bought his car back. Then he bought an 2003 Evo 8 that has 90K miles and stripped it down. He swapped all the Power Train, Drive Train, brakes, lines, steering wheel, subframe, steering racks etc.... from his 50k mile evo into the 90K mile evo.

During the install process I'm thinking he may have not pushed in the steering shaft enough (not the actual steering wheel on to the shaft). I believe that may be why the gap behind the steering wheel exists more than it should.

So my question to you guys is how would i close this gap ? Im assuming i just remove the steering wheel and unclamp the shaft from under the dash and hammer down the steering shaft a little ? I tried unclamping and pushing the steering wheel in but that didnt work. Im assuming I need to hammer it down. Will this bring the gap down when I install the wheel back on ?

Thanks,

 

IIRC, the wheel is bolted to the column. If its on, it's on. You can pull the air bag out and see whats going on though.

 

Here is a pic of the gap I'm talking about:

 

Make sure the steering wheel is fully seated & torqued as noted below

 

yeah that definitely doesnt look right

 

There's mounts on the steering column made to break free in the event of an accident. Occasionally I see a post here that reads, "My steering column is loose and moves side to side." The poster has broken the mounts just driving. So, no hammering. There is no repair if these mounts break, the steering column must be replaced.

 

I took off the steering wheel and it was fully "seated" on the stearing shaft. I took a picture with measuring tape to show how far out the shaft is sticking out . If I loosen the clamp underneath the dash and are top of the foot pedals, will I be able to lightly push/tap the shaft in so it shortens a bit ?

 

Obviously some work has been performed on the linkage. Who installed that pipe clamp & why? (see attached pic)

The best advice I could offer is to follow the service manual section 37-24. Is specifically notes that the tilt mechanism must not be engaged during the re-assembly, otherwise the steering column will not be installed correctly

 

I had the steering column out of my car and when I went to reinstall it, the factory clip defeated me. Its either a two person job or needs somebody with more skill. So, my steering column at the floor boards looks the same except the factory clip is gone.

With a car built out of two cars, one of them wrecked, its hard to know what is happened here. Its even possible the steering rack is out of place.

 

Would you guys be able to tell if the shaft is protruding too much ? This will help me know if I should focus on the steering wheel construction or the shaft assembly ...

 

I should be changing my wheel soon, if your still on this, ill snap some pics

 

Thanks for everyones input. I have resolved this issue.

First I decided to measure the steering wheel input well for the shaft and determined the shaft was at correct length. I took apart the steering wheel and didnt notice any issues. But since it was apart I decided to center the airbag/horn since it bothered me a little. The shaft splines didnt look damaged nor did the steering wheel’s . I pushed the allen bolt to “lock” it in the out position so it doesnt move and get in the way during the installation.

After all that I just put the steering wheel back together and slid it on the shaft again. It stopped at the same distance again, so I applied some pressure and a light to moderate palm strike and it slid down all the way. As I mentioned I didnt notice any damages on the spline but maybe there may have been a small nick that created a resistance.

Hopefully my experience will help anyone else out there with similar issue. If you are having trouble measure the shaft and the inside of the steering wheel where the shaft slides in. If they measure up just make sure the locking bolt is not getting in the way, the splines are not damaged and give it a little wack.

I also inspected the bottom steering assembly and there were no issues. I even compared it to some pics I found online. The previous owner put on the extra warm clamp for reassurance with the oem clamp. He just swapped the steering wheel for a better condition lower mileage wheel.

Much Better :

 

Awesome good job!

 

Thank you for sharing with us!.
Great pics and all. I'm sure this will help some fellow out there.

 

Nice, good thing you kept at it. That must have been quite annoying