Steering Column Repair: Steering column replacemnt, ford steering column, power steering pump

Question
Hi Douglas,
I have a 97 F-350 with a loose and wobly steeing wheel. Also the steering is very hard to turn. I changed the power steering pump still hard to turn. I know I need to change out the column I found one on ebay for 130.00 with key is this the way to go rather than trying to replace the worn parts in the column? And how hard is this swap? I have been wrenching on stuff my whole life but never changed out a steering column. As far as the power steering pump maybe I just got a bad one. Thanks for any advise you can give me.  Mark

Answer
Hi Mark:

The wobble is from a bad upper bearing...very common.  The hard to steer on the other hand could be a number of things which I am not capable of diagnosing for you.  My expertise is in the interior of the vehicle, not the entire steering system.

To your point, it may be easier to swap out the column rather than rebuild it, but only you can decide that.  To remove the column is fairly easy, 4 bolts secure it to the dash, 1 bolt to the steering shaft and a number of connectors under the dash.  The hard part is making sure the replacement column has a good clockspring in it, centering the turns without breaking it swapping out all the switches and electrical parts.  You may end up tearing down two columns and rebuilding one with all the original electrical parts.
On the other hand, rebuilding it comes fairly easy to us.  

We have recently uploaded pages and a description of how to rebuild the upper portion of a Ford steering column.  They are broken down into step by step detailed instructions on our website. Although the example is for a 2000 Mustang, the column is identical to yours (tilt and non tilt use the same housing)
http://www.stolenandrecovered.com/howto/fordupper.php

I hope these instructions help you.  If not, please contact me again for more information.
Lastly, if you need parts to repair this column simply email us on our "Contact Us / Order Parts" page and we will get back in touch with you personally.  We stock just about everything you will need to repair your column.

Good luck

Doug

http://www.stolenandrecovered.com