SA steering column wowes!!!! someone must have same problem
 

so my 1979 Rx 7 has some issues. first of all the steering was completly sloppy. i traced the problem to the steering box itself. it cannot be adjusted anymore to make slop go away.

second problem is that the SA steering column has plastic bushings on the top and the bottom to support and center the steering shaft. my top bushing is gone. completly gone causing the wheel to slop around.

sooooo.... I have a 85 GSL-SE steering box and idler arm installed new tie rods, ect. now my SA column will not work with this box, so I will either need to install the brake pedal (it bends differently to clear larger dia. column) or modify my SA column to fit some how.

the 85 colum will bolt in perfectly, but....... the sa switches and such dont work properly or even fit the FB column. which leads me to the second option.

I have mated the FB column lower section to the SA upper section and it seems to work good, but my crafty ness and over working of some parts have destroyed the bearing in the lower section and i still dont have a usable upper section bushing. I have tried salvage yards and such but no luck.

so I am leaning towards using a complete FB column and switches in my 1979.

Anyone done this, the wiring looks to be completly different. ignition switch looks easy enough but the blinkers and wipers either have not the same number of terminals or too many terminals.

:(

some one give me some input here.

thanks

You need to replace the column and box as a full assembly and then use the combination switch and ignition switch from the 79.

-billy

yes, i thought about that.

but.....

the 1979 combination switch doesnt mount the same as the 85 column so how do I make it fit.

anyone got pics of this performed..

thanks

the steering column bushings are available and cheap

where can I get them, I called two mazda dealers and they dont list them anymore.

only for the newer FB cars

i got the sterring column bushings from a mazda dealership about 2 years ago , so yes they can be found .. don't give up on them

shoot crazy ralph an email, ralphh@capitolmazdasj.com he used to sell em on ebay. tell him ben seaver sent you

mazdatrix.com has them
 

PN# 49-1010-8871 here is a link to the page that it is on....http://www.mazdatrix.com/hsteer1.htm ...it's like $18 plus shipping

hey thanks, I will order that today.

i actually made a hybrid column, using the sa outer sleeve and the actuall steering shaft is the sa upper shaft mated with the fb lower. it looks and installed good then the bushings went bad. also I am having trouble keeping the lower fb bearing in the tube may have to get creative there and weld it in tighter or get another sleeve to hold it in better.

should still have crash protection as the upper and lower shafts still slide into each other.

I recently purchased the very inexpensive upper column (plastic) bushing from MazdaTrix. Quickly fixed my problem with shaft's free play inside the outer column.

How did you make that hybrid column? I just did the same thing today, and had to cut and weld to create a custom lower tube that would adapt the old upper tube to the newer steering box. It all looks like stock now. I snapped a few pics, and will post them here later to assist others who do the same thing.

Also, the newer steering shaft has shorter splines and a bit of a taper to locate the later steering wheels. The earlier wheel seems to fit OK, but needs to have the hub tapered a bit to match the shaft, and give the correct installed depth.

well I used the stock 1979 outer and enlarged the bottom end to accept the bearing from the 1985 column, the inner shaft pulls apart into tow pieces. the top piece is the 1979 and the bottom is the shorter 1985 section, I sanded down the top a bit to make it slide into the 1979 top and pushed them together they are pretty tight but in accident they will compress like orginal.

my problem is that I destroyed the bearing in the bottom (too much damage to it removing it from the old column tube.

and the top bushing is shot. (but I have been pointed to a few places that still sell them)

i would like to use the whole 1985 column but cannot figure out a way to mount the 1979 switches and such to the 1985 column. so here I sit.

if you can post the pics of yours let me know

90turbo1,

The fancy four-fingered mount for the SA combo switch won't fit over the larger FB tube, so I can't see how that nice roller bearing from the FB can be used. What about fitting an FB combo switch and surround?
Below are some pics I snapped during the process. The new assembly is installed now, and everything fit. If by bottom bearing you mean the white plastic tube with nested ball bearings, I've got a spare. I'll mail it out to you if it'd be of use for you.

no actually the bottom of my 1985 column had a real bearing installed in the tube. right where it attaches to the fire wall mount. ahead of u joint.

i do not have that white plastic slider bearing thing. What year did you get the column from??

i will snap some pics of my problem tomorrow

The white plastic slider was between the inner and outer tubes. It was present in my 1979 column, as well as the column taken from a 1985 GSL-SE. There is no bearing at the firewall in either case, just a rubber boot that fits snugly around the tube and pops into the firewall. I'm not clear on what you call a u-joint. The shaft runs straight down into the steering box in both assemblies mentioned above, with no u-joint.

wow you have or i have something completly different here.

on my 1985 gsl-se collumn the steering box has a short shaft that comes almost up to the fire wall. on the fire wall there is a metal clamp with 4 bolts that is bolted to fire wall. this clamp clamps around the bottom of the 85 column. to mate the column to the steering box there is a u joint. where the column is clamped to the fire wall there is a real bering to support the bottom of the shaft in the outer tube.

hmmm the gsl-se column and box that I have are from a power steering car, maybee they were different.

anyway mine sounds ver very different than what you have going on.

OK, I missed that you were dealing with a power steering box here. What I have is the manual box GSL-SE, which has the straight shaft all the way from the steering wheel straight down into the box itself, the same as the earlier year cars. Yours with the power steering setup sounds quite different. Looks like you are breaking new ground here. Perhaps consider using the FB combo switch and lock in place of your older SA parts?

will get some pics up asap.

wonder why the extra bearings and such for a power box.

hmmm things that make you go hmmmmm