Steering wheel shaft play. How much is normal?

[ulrichd]

I am replacing the standard wheel on my 70T with a Prototipo. After removing the stock wheel I noticed that I can grab the steering wheel shaft with two fingers and move it quite easily, say 1/4" side to side. Is this normal.

Ulrich

[boxster03]

no should be nice and tight. but a non stock wheel could cause any sorts of problems. always a chance you take when you put on non Porsche parts. remember there is no substitute

[RTincher]

There is also a shaft spacer that sometimes goes AWOL when the wheel is changed to aftermarket.

See good description here:

http://www.early911sregistry.org/for...t=shaft+spacer

Good Luck

[TEC69E]

Don't forget to move the spring and cupped washer from you factory wheel to the momo. Go ahead and ask me how I know this one

Tom

[ulrichd]

Once the Momo hub is pushed on there is no play, but I was worried about the ease of movement before the new hub went on.

Ulrich

[John Straub]

If you need to, there is also a bearing that can be replaced on the early cars.

[37yrold911]

I have the same question, but the link below yields a 404 error. Maybe that is the thread about the spring and the circular retainer clip that go on the stock wheel and are often lost or removed(?) Do those need to be installed onto aftermarket (Momo) wheels also? Is that the 'cupped washer' mentioned below?

695-347-725-00 356B/C Steering Shaft Bearing Support Ring (bearing race) - $36 @ Stoddard

914 347 713 00, Support ring only for steering shaft bearing, compression spring, bearing spring - $1.37 @ Stoddard

In my case I removed the Momo wheel and the momo hub (or is it a spacer, or an adaptor?). When I had the steering wheel on, the car drove, cornered and steered just fine, except... I could notice just the very tiniest amount of 'play (or was it just paranoia I noticed?) when I tried hard to move the steering wheel while driving.

Also, I have a related question: is there any sort of checks, measurements, or maintenance I should do while I have the hub off?

There is also a shaft spacer that sometimes goes AWOL when the wheel is changed to aftermarket.

See good description here:

http://www.early911sregistry.org/for...t=shaft+spacer

Good Luck

[HarryD]

This thread at the bird tells the story: http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsc...-quickfix.html

[chris_seven]

The early shaft does have a significant clearance between the shaft and the housing, it is quite different to the later shafts and uses a significantly different bearing.

The early column uses a bearing that (914-347-711-00) is now $290 to replace but which is easily repaired if it has fallen apart.

The 'quickfix' spacer doesn't work with the early column as the early and late bearings are very different.


The steering wheel boss should have a 30mm spigot to remove the clearance between the bearing and steering shaft.

There are a few issues worth inspecting and we are just developing a 'kit' of parts to refurbish the columns on early cars.

The upper bearing is easy to rebuild and re-use.

Lower bearings are often poor and could do with replacing.

I have written some instructions while waiting for all the parts to arrive including a new split tolerance ring made from Ertalyte TX which will remove all play.

Here is the relevant part of the instruction set.

[John Fusco]

Chris - Did you ever put the upper bearing "kit" together ?