Tilt steering wheel jammed

[guitarfish]

My wife drives an '02 GP GT. The steering wheel is stuck in the middle position, not all the way up, not all the way down. Ordinarily, you pull the plastic lever on the left of the steering column towards you, and you can tilt the wheel up & down.

Well, there's about 1/2" of movement on that lever, but it won't disengage the lock at all. I popped apart the two plastic covers of the steering column, was only able to get them a 1/2" apart, and I couldn't see anything.

Has anyone ever experienced this? My wife didn't recall hearing anything break, etc. Just all of a sudden she went to tilt the wheel, and it was stuck.

[BNaylor]

That doesn't sound good. The only thing I can think of is a worn out or stuck tilt head assembly which requires major disassembly to replace. When you push the lever back towards the IP does it snap back (check tilt spring)?

[guitarfish]

Originally Posted by BNaylor

That doesn't sound good. The only thing I can think of is a worn out or stuck tilt head assembly which requires major disassembly to replace. When you push the lever back towards the IP does it snap back (check tilt spring)?

There doesn't seem to be any spring tension on the lever. It moves back and forth a small amount, about 1/4-1/2", that's it. Fortunately, the steering wheel is positioned in a spot that is OK for my wife who drives it. So it may come down to leaving it that way forever, or spending $300-400 for a repair.

On my '08, I can easily see the tilt gears as I move the lever back and forth, I can see it engage/disengage. But on the '02 it seems to be a completely different design, and I can't see anything.

I've pulled a steering wheel on my '94 GP years ago, and got in there to fix something once, but not as deep as this mechanism, which seems like major surgery.

[guitarfish]

Wow, it's been 3 1/2 years since I posted this problem?? Well I fixed it tonight, so I'm posting back for anyone else. I fixed it in all of 10 minutes, and it cost m $0.00.

Well, actually, it cost me a $18 for a DVD I bought of the GM service manual. Thank God for eBay, I can now fix stuff on my car.

1) Remove the tilt handle from the steering column by pulling it out while moving back and forth.

2) Remove bottom trim cover from steering column - it's held in place by two Torx screws underneath. Remove the screws, the plate falls down. Carefully push it towards instrument panel and undo the hinge on each side and set it aside.

In my case, the spring for the tilt function appeared fine. Examining underneath the mechanism with a flashlight, there's a set of metal gears with teeth. One of them appeared to be stuck. I took a flat blade screwdriver and tapped it up with a hammer and I immediately heard the column move. I slid the tilt lever handle back in and was immediately able to move the steering wheel to all tilt positions.

I put it all back together, it works great. It's my wife's car, I had her come check it out. She said one of my son's friends had driven the car, and we think he didn't know what he was doing and the steering wheel slammed very hard in the full up position and got stuck there.

All's well that ends well.

[Tech II]

Have seen this happen alot....but it doesn't get stuck in the middle....it usually gets stuck at the top position......

What happens, usually, is the steering wheel is set at it's lowest point for the driver....someone else goes to drive the car, and releases the lever, but is not holding on to the wheel......that spring sends that steering wheel upward with a vengience and it get's jammmed in the upper most position....you release it the same way you did....getting some sort of tool in between the teeth and seperating it....

[Marshiedad]

Glad to find this thread and saved me $$$ from the dealer. Thanks guitarfish for the instructions and tech II for the explanation, was able to fix the stuck tilted steering on my 1999 Suburban. Now onto troubleshoot the door's actuator issue.

[guitarfish]

Hey, glad to hear it. Hard to believe I don't own any GM cars anymore, after 32 years of driving them.