Pontiac Repair: Looseness in GM tilt steering column, tilt column, tilt mechanism

Question
The tilt column in my daughter's 1998 Grand Am is loose.  The steering wheel will rock about 0.5in left and right.  The looseness appears to be in the tilt mechanism.  The steering wheel appears to be tight on the column and the column forward of the tilt pivot appears to be rigid.  I can not see under the column shroud enough to tell if there are any fasteners or anything that could be loose.  The looseness is unaffected by tilting the column up/down or when holding the tilt release lever in.  Any idea what is wrong or if this is a common or known problem? Any idea if it can be repaired without replacing the entire column? If so, where/how can I get more info?  Thanks.

Answer
Hi Mike:

well it can be either the steering column in loose in the dash or the tilt assembly iss loose in the column. Pull the filler panel out below the steering column and you will see the 2 attaching bolts to the dash if those are tight your going to have to rip into the column to find the issue. There are 3 screws that hold the cover for the column to the bottom of the column. remove them and they top half will pop off the column then you can wiggle the wheel and see where the felxing is taking place.. I don't know of a place where a do it your selfer can find info on the net for this kind of a reapir. Did you try a google search? All of the pieces in the steering column are servicable and you should have no issues trying to get parts to fit it but it just may be a matter of a loose bolt. Good luck :)