WTF My strng. wheel pops out towards me like an inch
 

my steering wheel will come directly toward the driver if pulled, it doesnt affect the steering but when its out, the blinkers dont turn off after turns. anywayz i was wondering if anyone knew what this was

Theres a nut under the horn pad that holds the wheel on. It might be that it came loose somehow. If the whole shaft moves in and out, then you have sheared rivets at the column joint.

thankx ill check that

Mine does this too.

Mine does the same thing!!
The nut is tight, and I have very througly looked at the steering wheel. I cant seem to figure out why.

mine was doing the same thing... i couldn't get my steering wheel on once... had to get a bunch of washers and put em over the shaftand tighten the nut on it to get the shaft out enough, but i can't put the wheel on with the blinker shutter offer piece... the column joint? where exactly would this be? call me a retard but i don't got the slightest clue

I beleive this is caused by
(1) Either someone hit the Sterring Wheel Shaft with a hammer to break the Wheel loose after the the Nut was taken off or
(2) The RX has been in an Front End Accident which in turn causes the Wheel to colapse, a Safety Issue.
Mine does the same thing and it's never had either one off those nasty things done to it.
84GSL and i've owned it since day one.
sgieldon
steve

yeah mines never been in a wreck, i bought it from the origional owner, who is a friend of mine, and i never hit the steering wheel with a hammer to get it off, it came off easy... i'm the only one who's ever taken that wheel off

mine does the same thing its probably just the end gear play that mazda didn't notice doesn't seem to affect my steering but I did break the thing that turns the signals off broke both the nipples.

ok, there is a plastic pin that has broke in your steering column, saftey feature for a collapsing steering wheel. You didn't need to be in an accident. Its old. Fix is to get under your steering column drill a new hole and pin it with a cotter pin.

The steering column (that the steering wheel bolts to) is covered by a black cylindrical metal tube (column cover) . This tube is what you can see from the foot well.

This column cover is attached to the dash sub-frame by a U shaped bracket. The bracket has (inch long) slots in it rather than bolt holes. This allows the column cover to be bolted to the sub-frame at differing points depending upon whereabouts in the slot you torque up the bolts..

Because the steering column is fixed, moving this column cover in and out (by changing the position in the slot of the bolts) alters the amount of steering column which is exposed.

I have found (on my 84 Series 3) that unless the maximum amount of steering column is exposed I could not reassemble the indicators and steering wheel.




THere has been a detailed thread on the Australian site about how the collapible sterring coolumn works. I will paste it below.

You appear to have busted the soft metal fasteners that join the 2 sections of the steering column.

Here is the details


For those interested I think I sussed out how the Gen 1 collapsible steering column works when I had my Series 3 apart.

I believe it to be a 2 stage process.

Stage 1.

The steering column is in 2 piece (upper is attached to steering wheel, lower is attached to steering box). The upper steering shaft slides down over the lower and is held in place by “fasteners”.

These fastener sheer under force allowing the upper shaft to slide down over the lower shaft. The cross-section shape of these 2 shafts is oval(ish) so these “fasteners” do not restrict any rotational movement between the shafts – they only prevent the upper shaft sliding down over the lower shaft.

Once these “fasteners” give, the movement of the upper steering column over the lower column (away from the driver ) is restricted by the steering column cover. (the black cylindrical tube which covers the steering shaft ).

Stage 2

The steering wheel boss is bigger than the steering column cover and therefore the collapse movement after the “fasteners” let go stops when the steering wheel boss hits the end of the steering column cover.

The steering column cover is in 2 sections. An inner and outer section with the outer section able to slide down over the inner section. They are held together by a nylon bush.

The outer section of the steering column is bolted to the dash sub-frame via a u shaped bracket. It does not appear to have been manufactured to deform from a force down its axis (A cylinder can take its biggest force on its axis). It is one big hunk of metal.

The bracket that holds the steering column cover (outer section) to the dash sub frame is held on by 4 bolts. It is only when these 4 bolts sheer that the outer section of the steering column cover can move over the inner section of the steering column cover.

When this occurs the end of the outer steering column cover no longer restricts the movement of the upper steering column shaft.

Summary

If the steering column gets a small force applied to it the “fasteners” between the upper and lower steering column shafts give way but the collapsing movement of the steering wheel is stopped after about 1 inch due to the steering column cover.

THis leave the steering operabable however the steering wheel has about one inch of in-out travel along its axis. The wheel cannot be pulled out becasue the steering wheel lock mechanism prevents this.

If the steering wheel gets a big force applied to it the fasteners will let go and the force of the steering wheel boss on the end of the outer steering column cover will cause the 4 bolts holding the bracket to the outer steering column cover to sheer. Then, in unison, the outer section of the steering column cover can slide down over the inner section , no longer causing the restriction (by the steering wheel boss) of the upper steering column shaft moving inward over the inner steering column shaft.

This is very fixable. As stated before, the shear pin has sheared. There used to be an excellent write up on this but I can't find it anymore. I should be able to recreate this but I'll need to measure a couple of things on my car before I can do that. God willing and the creek don't rise, I might actually remember to do this when I get home tonight.

joe's correct
 

the rx-7 has this "shear pin" which is actually a thin metal strap about 5 inces long and apprx. 1/4 in. wide. it is just tack welded to the two halves of the steering column. if you pull out your steering column and bring it to a welding shop, they should be able to fix it for about 10-20 dollars. This is a good fix if your steering is still good. Otherwise i would say just replace the column and gearbox with a newer one from a dismantler for about 100 dollars.
just my 2 cents
Mario ;)

I have one in my posession that has already had the shear pin repaired with an aluminum fastener. The gear box is very tight, with little play. If you are interested in it, pm me.

OK, it took me two days to remember to check, not bad for me.

In this age of lawsuits, I urge you not to do this repair. Its much safer to dismantle your entire steering system at a cost of hundreds of dollars and have this repaired exactly the way the original Mazda engineers designed it. But just as a point of interest, and I discourage anyone from doing this, here's how I fixed this problem.

I centered my steering wheel and also push/pulled it into the correct spot to correctly cancel the turn signals.

I then measured up along the black tube containing the steering shaft 8" from the floor. I drilled a 3/8" hole in the bottom of the tube at that location. I then drilled a 1/4" hole in the steering shaft, which was now accessible due to the 3/8" hole I had just made. Finally, I installed a 1/4" ALUMINUM pop rivet into the hole in the steering shaft. I felt it was important to use aluminum because I still want the collapsible steering shaft to work as intended. I felt that an aluminum rivet would shear, while anything harder might not.

This took about 15 minutes to fix and cost next to nothing since I already owned a pop-rivet gun. It has worked for three years so far without problem. However, I haven't been in an accident so I have no proof that the aluminum rivet would shear as intended. So, whatever you do, don't attempt to make this repair.

there is 86 se at my work with the damn steering wheel problem. The car has some passenger side damage and top of hood damage but nothing front end. Then again this car is an uber-pos having bad brakes, slipping clutch, random stalls, SPRAY PAINTED BLACK INTERIOR TRIM (like even the carpet on the door cards), sloppy shifting, really really really leaky injectors, split in the cat and some fart cans, one with the silencer and one without. A/C is disconnected and the manual steering sucks ass and is not smooth.(turns easy then turns VERY hard and back on forth) So the steering wheel moving in and out didnt really suprise me....

wouldn't a spring pin work better?

wow, looks like i hit the nail right on the head with this thread...cant belive so many people have same prob

thank you all for your help, now i have a small proj.

me too...

Not sure about in the US but in Australia, Mazda does not sell the soft metal fasteners.

You have to buy the whole steering shaft. The trouble with this is that the lower end of the shaft is part of the steering box, so to install the new steering shaft requires disassemble and reassemble of the steering box which entails all those end float adjustments (that bring fear into the heart of the lay person).

If that is too much effort, Mazda Australia will sell you a complete steering shaft installed in the steering box for about the current market value of your car as an alternate “legal” fix.

Keep in mind that all repair methods other than replacing the steering column will be considered an “illegal” fix.

Many people venture down the path of the “illegal” fix due to the expense and effort of the “legal” fix. As a responsible adult this is their choice.

I do not hear, however of people testing their “illegal” fixes.

While the system is still apart (it only takes about 15 minutes to totally expose the joint between the upper and lower steering shafts where the fasteners have failed) apply a force down the axis of the shaft (hit it with a rubber mallet, protecting the thread of course) to see what force is required to sheer the alternate fastener that have been installed. If you are comfortable with the force that caused it to sheer then replace it with an identical, alternate fastener and reassembled the whole steering column.

If anything you want you err on the side of caution. If the fastener lets go too easily the steering column will be returned to the state that is currently is in and it is only a matter of another 30 minutes of work to disassemble, replace and reassemble. It does not seem a burden to do this every NN months or MM years. If it takes too much force to let go then it could result in injury.

Some of the other alternate fasteners I have heard people use, other than aluminium rivet are nylon bolts and nylon plugs.

Remember – though the only true legal fix is to replace the steering column.

What a great post I finally found, just what I need. Would somebody that did this fix please post a pic?