Hi, I am doing the loose steering column repair thing, and wondering if there are any tips that will help get my really tight tilt release lever out without badly scraping it up (mine isn't responding to a 5 inch vice grip). Is it possible to access the lever right next to where it enters the threaded hole by pulling the plastic lever cover out to the left after pulling the turn signal cover (next to the steering wheel) rearward?
Also, what is the best way to pull out the cruse control wire to give more slack? Thanks !

Jazzman made a Great writeup about this. I don't think he is a member here anymore if I remember right. I think he got the boot.

You can check out his writeup here.

Inside the GM tilt Column

Thank you. Yes, that was a helpful article but sadly didn't really address the two steps I've asked about. However, this picture of his tilt lever (posted below) shows a little of what I asked in my first question. I'm not even sure what tool he even used to grab the tilt lever in such a tight opening. I tried a 5 inch vice grip since there isn't much room in this area.


Any ideas would be welcome.

I have done this twice on 2 different Fieros and never removed the tilt lever that I can recall. Just need to remove the tilt pivots. Jazzman's document completely disassembles/assembles the column. Every step is not needed to tighten the 4 bolts.

In this article, you can see the tilt pivot being removed with a screw and vice grips. you can clearly see the tilt lever in place.
http://fieros.de/en/articles/steering.html

Hi Rexgirl:

Don't know if you finished this project already, but flimbob is right. I found out that you actually don't need to remove the tilt lever. You can get the tilt lever shroud out of the way by dangling it off the tilt lever. The tilt lever and casing with the pivot pin holes then all come off together, so you can get at the four bolts behind. It takes a bit of wrangling, but it's better than removing the whole steering column (which I regrettably did). I've included a picture posted in my string (you commented there a few days ago). This is after I tightened the four torx screws, and put the casing back on. The link is here:

https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/135606.html

I have one last minor additional question, which you may be able to answer.

Regards,

waynrayn

hi waynrayn, Yes, I just finished today, and the steering feels much better now ::happy smile::.
After putting loctite on the bolt threads and reassembling, I wondered, why not use star or split lock washers instead of loctite? Does anyone know?