Sloppy Steering Column Fix

this should be stickied

 

Just did this to my wifes taco today which has worse play than my taco.
I drilled the holes with a 9/64 bit , 3/8 depth and instead of a roll pin i used two 1/8" dia x 1/4"L aluminum pop rivets opposingly placed.
Reasoning is the shear strength (i hope, from my research) of the pop rivet is 120# (x2) which is much lower than a roll pin's 1875#-1900# (x2?).
Wife loves the firmness (theres a joke there somewhere) of the steering now.
Tomorrow i'll do it on my taco.
I'll report back if the rivets fail in the future.

THANK YOU to everyone who contributed to this fix!
CK

 

did this today to my taco. this time with just one pop rivet. so far its working also.
You can tell the difference when you go thru potholes and other road imperfections, no more jiggly noise and motions.
lovin it! will report back if it changes.
CK

 

Wondering if one rivet will eventually wear down and allow a little bit of play. Although I bet it will never wear back down to where it was before.

I believe this is the last piece of the puzzle in cleaning up my front end.

 

Is this just for 1st gens or does it include 2nd gens as well?

 

Sorry. No idea if this is also an issue with 2nd Gens.
So far so good with our two tacos. both approaching 300k mi.

 

Look for the “zip tie” mod for 2nd gens

 

Just did it today after I saw the thread this morning. Fixed all the slop in the steering, just make sure you dont let the column spin around when you have it out. I had to take off the airbag when i reinstalled everything because i had no play left. Super easy to take off the airbag and readjust the steering wheel. Make sure you line up the steering and mark the steering wheel so it goes on exactly as it came off and its straight.

 

thanks guys i have this and didn't even think to look for this thinking i would be alone in my search for a diagnosis

 

So, I’m wondering if this would cure my issue. I can turn the steering wheel back and forth but the shaft you can see in the truck does not move. I’d say it’s about an inch or less of movement of the steering wheel before it’ll start to move the visible shaft. Is this what we are talking about?

 

Yes- I’m resurrecting the thread.

 

If it’s your 03 you shouldn’t be checking out this thread - it’s all for 2nd gens. Here’s the same concept for 1st gens.

https://youtu.be/xsOptgpfshg

 

Thanks- was googling and got sucked in here, then watched the video on page one. Never even looked at the gen section it was in.

 

This is an excellent cure for wandering out on the highway.

 

This will reduce most of the play in the steering wheel.

 

Bumping this back up.

I did this yesterday, used the tac weld method. Should have done this along time ago, truck is alot more enjoyable to drive again.

 

I finally just did this to my 98... So much nicer to drive now! Thanks all!
Only took me maybe 1.5hr because I found one on eBay and ultimately just decided to buy brand new shaft (to keep safety measures) and do a quick swap

 

hey man, can you explain how you did this shaft swap? im trying to do the exact same thing but im stuck. How did you remove the old shaft? Im cant figure out how to remove the upper shaft from the steering wheel/column thing. From the FSM it appears to be held in place with a compression spring and snap ring but I havent a clue how to remove and replace. Also did you replace the bearing (the FSM says its a non-reusable part)

 

Hey, I just followed all the steps in Timmy's video that was shared above by Dalandser. Thanks!
But I guess I didn't mention, I actually did not replace that upper 6" shaft section into the steering wheel (since that was fine) I left that in place and just replaced the white tilt bushing and lower shaft with the new parts I got. Just tilts to one side 90 deg to then separate, I think he shows it in the video too

Also I don't think I did anything wrong, because it does all only go in one way. But I still needed an alignment after to straighten my steering wheel back up to normal. But now everything is super tight like brand new!

 

Ah ok thats what i ended up doing exactly. Except I took my steering wheel off and re-installed it straight. No alignment needed. Thanks for the update.