Steering Column Rebuild 69 Dart - what is the tube with the spring for?
No purpose that I ever saw. It's locked from moving on the upper side by the collar. The spring pushes up on it to keep it in place.
My lower bearing was seized and needed to be replaced. The stock bearing is expensive so I installed an ER-16 bearing in its place. I had to shorten up the tube to get the bearing to seat on the outer column jacket. I also used the stock lower bearing plastic housing to support the tube on the inside. I flipped the plastic piece upside down and ground off the "nubs" so it fit inside the outer column jacket.(the stock bearing needs to be removed from the plastic first) The new bearing fits great.
No purpose that I ever saw. It's locked from moving on the upper side by the collar. The spring pushes up on it to keep it in place.
My lower bearing was seized and needed to be replaced. The stock bearing is expensive so I installed an ER-16 bearing in its place. I had to shorten up the tube to get the bearing to seat on the outer column jacket. I also used the stock lower bearing plastic housing to support the tube on the inside. I flipped the plastic piece upside down and ground off the "nubs" so it fit inside the outer column jacket.(the stock bearing needs to be removed from the plastic first) The new bearing fits great.