Steering column dropped :S

[cassanova]

Gotta go to work so il cut a long story short....

Took dashboard off over the weekend to do sum welding, my dad twatted the centre of the steering wheel to get it off (as is apparently common practice (im not guna tell my dad otherwise when hes got a lump hammer in his hand lol)) anyway, it came off fine, did the work, but now when we put it on, it was a bastard cus the column has gone down (towards the engine) by about an inch so we had to push it up with a screwdriver jammed in the steering lock indentation (cos ive taken my ignition off).

It seems to steer ok but doesnt return to centre on its own, hav gotta turn it back, my old man put the steering wheel on upside down though, would that stop it returning to centre properly?

Cheers lads and ladettes
Ford

[Aragorn]

no the column is prolly fucked

there is a stretch/crushable section in there for safety when u crash

smashing it with a lump hammer is similar to the kinda shocks the column will go thru when you crash - so it collapses rendering the column useless

u'll now need a new column and a steering wheel puller to do the job properly

[Ste_Nova]

i did mile last weekend with a hammer.... you need the steering lock engaged to stop the coloum sliding down while you are hitting it