big nut on airbag steering shaft

[Julien]

I'm in the process of installing an e36 steering rack in my airbag'd e30 and am having a hell of a time loosening that big nut under the dash to allow the steering column to telescope itself. I've tried setting my adjustable wrench and setting it agaist the trans tunnel while turning the steering wheel CCW but no luck.


Any help would be appreciated :)

Julien

[nando]

maybe you're turning it the wrong way?

[Balleristic31]

That nut tightens CCW.

[Julien]

yeah, just was really really tight.. finally got it

[Teaguer]

Fan clutch tool works pretty good on it.

[duckBoy]

I never had to touch that when i did the rack swap.

[Simon S]

I never had to touch that when i did the rack swap.

Weird. Not sure how you'd clearance the firewall without pulling that lower column rod with U-joint.

In any event - my nut was loose since I bought the car. (that lower column practically fell out). Likely cause of the 'jitter' the wheel would sometimes have over bumps.

Note to have key in and NOT utilize steering lock.

Here's a reference pic I took:



It was crazy how loose mine was. Like I hit the end of the rack's travel and had to reset the wrench. Something like 5-6 turns of the wheel before it was fully tight.

[jjc-hi]

I just tightened the big nut. I have the trim panel off so it took less than five minutes. I had purchased the Fan Clutch wrench to do this job. Just held it in place and turned the wheel CW. Test drive resulted in most of the front end noise gone. Should have done this months ago.