Hey everyone! Just bought a '97 and I need to get some stuff taken care of to get it legal. Could use some advice.

The signals sometimes work, sometimes do not - it all depends on whether or not downward pressure is applied to the wheel, in some cases.

My left turn signal is very fickle about working, but my right works just fine.

The brights only come on if I pull the lever down almost as far as if I was to put on the turn signal, and they stick on like they're supposed to, but won't shut off unless I pull the wheel down when I pull the lever back.

I've also gotta replace the window motor on the passenger side, but that's another story.

I was shocked to see that a gently used, entire steering column was about $170, whereas the switches [all of them] are about $90-100. So I'm torn - do I replace the whole column with a used one? Would that even fix the downward play in the wheel? [about 1/4 - 1/2 inch]

Any advice would be most welcome.

 

How easy is it to move up and down? Mine moves up and down as well, but it takes some force so I just live with it, it's not like it's flopping around. As far as the turn signals, maybe the clock spring (if these have one) is wearing out. On mine, I have to use a little force to get the brights to come on, the whole stalk seems like it takes an unusual amount of force to get anything to work.I don't know if just replacing the stalk would take care of it. My emergency flashers also don;t work have the time. I would be cautious about replacing the whole column, I don't know how the vats would react to a new one, or could you remove the lock cylinder from the existing one so you could still use the same key? I was able to get a whole column for my daughters 95 mustang from a pull a part place for $30. INcluding the airbag and clockspring.

 

Well, to answer your question, I'm planning on making a youtube video for this post to better illustrate it; however, it's not difficult. The wheel isn't wobbling all over the place on its own, but if you put downward pressure on it, the whole column moves about the distance I estimated, down and to the left - as if something on the top-right is loose or broken.

The weird thing to me is just how it's impacting my signals and my lights, though.

And yeah, I was thinking about just ripping out the old lock cylinder and swapping it with the new one so that I can still use my key.

 

post up a vid if you can, maybe we have the same issue.

 

The High Beam is connected at the bottom of the steering shaft via thin rod, and it can be adjusted a little. I had to do mine in the past.