It would seem the shaft in my steering column (which is out of the car) has pushed up in the column a bit. I tried to clamp it in the vise and pull it back out but no luck. Any suggestions other than disassembling the column?

 

The shaft is a 2 piece unit with one section being able to slide inside the other section for a certain distance. This is how the column was designed to collapse upon a front impact. The 2 shafts were pinned together with plastic pins and the pins would shear upon impact. You should be able to pull that lower section down but you will need to clamp something on to it that will allow you to use some force on it to get it to move. Be careful with vise grips as you don't want to bend the splines. If you have an old intermediate shaft, install it and the bolt/clamp and try hammering against the top of that shaft. Or clamp onto that top piece and hammer on whatever is clamped to it. It will move and be careful to get it back where it belongs.


Brian

 

Thanks Brian, you told me what I needed to know. I was looking for a lazy way out but ended up pulling the intermediate shaft out of the car today and clamping it on the column and using it like a slide hammer to get the shaft back out. Everything lined up great and now it is all back in the car. all is well that ends well.