Steering Column assistance needed

[LockDoc]

Originally Posted by Hugger_Orange

Thanks LockDoc,
The penetrating oil did the trick. I was shifting within minutes! I still need to take apart the turn signal housing cause when I pulled the shifter out, I could see some sort of loose debris in there. I couldn't tell what it was but it looked metallic :-( I used Purple Extreme. It's the only penetrating oil I've ever used. I don't know if all of them work as well as PEx but I've used 3 drops of that stuff to unlock a seized crescent wrench in the past.

I think I may have the same issue as FLCustom10 cause my lower bearing (1) does not go up inside the tube either. There is about an inch of slack in the column so something is not fitted properly. In the pic, I've pulled the shaft towards me (while seated) as far as possible and it still doesn't close the gap. I've yet to take off the entire assembly as my main concern was getting it to shift. I degreased the engine last night (after taking the pic) so I'll take another look tonight.

How tight should the nut (2) be? When I bought the truck it was very loose although it held. Does it just need to be tight enough to hold the arm (3) in the hole in the bolt (4) or should I crank it down?

Lastly, the arm (3) is not perfectly straight? Should I be concerned with this if I'm not having trouble shifting?

Thanks for the help.

I think you are missing the tension spring. Look at post #6 it shows a good pic of the large washer, spring, and lower bearing. The spring holds the bearing in.

The nut on the shifter rod pivot needs to be snugged up pretty good so the rod doesn't slip but don't twist it off. Put the shifter in Park, the trans in Park and tighten it up. The TH400 rods are straight and the TH350 rods have a bend in them.

LockDoc