Steering wheel noise

[DirtyLarry]

You know someone at GM-Trucks.com link above made a great comment about the plastic piece at the bottom of the column coming loose (Steering Shaft Lower Bearing Adapter) that I completely forgot about. That piece is pretty common to pop out and often misdiagnosed as another upper intermediate shaft issue, as you will feel and hear clunking when hitting bumps, turning, etc.

In fact, when I went to install the new upper intermediate shaft in my POS well used 2005 HD I found that bearing adapter hanging out as well. I happen to have an extra Delphi steering column laying around (training prop) so I popped in a new Steering Shaft Lower Bearing Adapter from the new column while I was at it. A few days later it popped out again! This time I wrapped it with electrical tape to tighten the fitment and used a big hose clamp to hold it in. So far so good. That guy on GM-Trucks.com pretty much did the same thing.

Here is an exploded view of the entire column.