A regular customer came had been living with his loose tilt steering column for too long.  He procrastinated fixing it even after it would only start with the tilt moved all the way up.  But when the brake lights quit working he couldn’t wait any more.

The brake lights circuit is routed through the hazard switch and blinker switch in the steering column, and I could wiggle the steering column and make the brake lights came on so we got the customers ok to disassemble and inspect.

We found the blinker switch had some wear in the wires and had a broken piece from all the movement in the sloppy column.    We also found retainers out of position behind these allen bolts.

The sloppy column also caused some wear in the ignition pinion gears.

Gear was worn, but I couldn’t get a picture of the wear. Sorry for the fuzzy pic.

The slop in the column, the wear on the gear above and the wear on the gear below (wear on teeth at arrow) was causing the ignition to not be able to start the car unless the tilt was moved all the way to the up position.

After repairs the column was nice and tight, brake lights worked and the car would start right!

If your tired of your sloppy Ford steering column bring it in and we can make it right too!