Date:         Wed, 26 Mar 2008 19:24:28 -0400
Reply-To:     Gary Stearns <gstearns@OPTONLINE.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Gary Stearns <gstearns@OPTONLINE.NET>
Subject:      Fw: Scraping steering wheel - not screws
Content-type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset=iso-8859-1; reply-type=original

Mine scrapes sometimes too.  I found was that it was being caused by the
brass horn contact arm on the steering column and the brass ring on the
bottom of the steering wheel that makes contact with. Whatever lubricant may
have been there was now just a stiff blob.  You'll have to remove the
steering wheel to get to it (Make a mental note of it's position on the
splines!).  I cleaned both the contact arm and the ring, smoothed the
surface of both with 400 grit sandpaper, bent the brass arm slightly so that
it would contact the ring in a different place and lubed with Lubro-Moly
copper anti-sieze.  This stuff has a lot of ground up microscopic copper in
it, which I thought would help the electrical connection.  I have to do this
every couple of years, but it is the source of the noise.

Gary
----- Original Message -----
From: "Neil Crawford" <vidublu@GMAIL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2008 1:55 PM
Subject: Re: Scraping steering wheel - not screws


> Well, I'm on me third swheel and still the scraping, horn blaring and now
> the wheel seems loose as well.  I've adjusted the ignition switch housing
> up
> and down multiple times.  Nothing doing.  The latest swheel is from an
> '86.
> Since I'm supposed to be, officially, using '81 ~ '85 parts, could the
> swheel itself be a problem?
>
> Me horn is now disconnected.  Not a good thing.
>
>
> On 3/19/08, Ken Wilford <kenwilfy@comcast.net> wrote:
>>
>> Ben,
>> You can adjust the ignition switch housing which will in turn give you
>> more clearance between the steering wheel horn ring and the finger that
>> pushes against it.  Remove the lower steering column cover and you will
>> see an allen head bolt that is clamping the ignition switch housing to
>> the steering column.  Loosen this allen bolt (if it isn't already loose)
>> and then push the ignition switch housing down away from you.  You will
>> see that there is an adjustment that can be made here.  Now take a look
>> at the clearance between the steering wheel and the steering column
>> cover.  You should have more clearance.  Adjust until you get enough
>> clearance to stop the scraping noise.  Now you should be good to go.
>> Lock the allen bolt and put the lower cover back on and you should be
>> golden.
>>
>> Hope this helps,
>> Ken Wilford
>> John 3:16
>> www.vanagain.com
>>
>>
>> Ben Cichowski wrote:
>> > Hi all,
>> >
>> > (1988 Wolfsburg Vanagon 2WD, MT, ej22)
>> >
>> > I have a scraping sound in my steering wheel. I read archives a while
>> ago and discovered that this is likely due to the 2 screws under there
>> scraping along the brass ring. I checked mine and thought that could be
>> it
>> as the screws were a little loose, and there appeared to be some wear on
>> the
>> ring...but the scraping sound persists, even with tight screws.
>> >
>> > It seems like my wheel sits too close to the column - like right
>> > against
>> the plastic column covers. Is there supposed to be a nylon washer/spacer
>> in
>> there or something that I'm missing - or is there an adjustment that I'm
>> not
>> seeing in Bentley that brings the wheel out just a touch?
>> >
>> > Thanks - Ben
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > _________________________________________________________________
>> > Need to know the score, the latest news, or you need your
>> > Hotmail(R)-get
>> your "fix".
>> > http://www.msnmobilefix.com/Default.aspx
>> >
>> >
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Neil Crawford
> '82 Diesel Westy
> Me other car is Swedish