I'm not talking about the play in the steering box, I'm talking about the fact that I can yank on my wheel and it'll come out an inch than push on it and it goes in an inch. When It's pulled out, the horn contact sensor thing doesn't make contact.

It's not affecting my driving or anything, I'm just curious as to what causes this? Can I tighten something down to stop this?

You Really have to give it a good yank for it to move, so it's not super loose.

It's the whole shaft moving, not just the wheel.

 

if you take the plastic cover off that says "Mazda", you will see a nut. This may have come loose...

 

its not teh nut, mine does it too - there is apparently something wrong w/ the steering shaft - if you push it all the way in, get out and look @ your steering box, then pull it out and look again, you will notice that it has moved - I saw soemthign about it in the "you might be a 1st gen owner when" thread by Landon 303 saying "when you have a "manually teleoscoping steering wheel" haha i guess i had a broken collapsable shaft but my whole wheel would come out & go back about an inch and a half"

 

I know this is an old post and for reviving it i apologize. This happens in my 85 GSL and it is rather irritating. Is it in fact a broken shaft? It in no way affects the steering but when you push it in my horn sensors connect and the horn goes. Is there any way to fix this (not the horn the wheel play) or is it just one of those things i should learn to live with? Just thinking along the lines of will my car even pass safety because of that?

 

I notice 85 12A said his was not very loose but mine is. I can pull it out with a finger and zero effort. But as i said ^ the steering itself is still tight and responsive

 

https://www.rx7club.com/forum/showth...ighlight=rivet

 

Mine does the exact same thing. I have a momo wheel and I had my horn fixed and the first time I drove the car the steering wheel pulled back about an inch in my hands and I thought it was going to pull off completely. Just another little thing I have learned to live with. I have to jam it on in just the right way to get the horn to work. Sometimes it wont work at all sometimes it gets stuck on (awesome when in traffic). As long as it doesn't come off completely its livable in a 23 year old car.

 

it is a collapsable 2 piece steering column. there is a nylon bolt holding the two pieces together, that has busticated.

replace it with another nylon bolt if you wish to keep this valuable safety feature, or a common steel one if not. you have to take the steering column tube, combo switch cluster, and wheel off to get to it.

also, if you push the steering column IN it can crunch the combo switch.

 

Thanks again Directfreak! (in link)