Hi my name is Tim and I'm a fourth-gen-aholic. Anyways I am contenplating purchasing a 88gts with 88k miles asking price $1900. Everthing on the car seemed good. tires, shocks, cv joints, clutch, tranny, motor, interior. Only things I could find wrong were minor scratches and dings, brakes sqealed, annoying high frequency vibration during acceleration my guess would be exhaust heat shield or somthing like that, and the steering column was jacked up. All these problems seem minor however the steering column bothered me the most. So basicaly it would only lock in the lowest posistion, this is a relevent problem considering I'm 6'4". I could move it up and down but it would only lock if it was all the way down. I know it can be fixed. Just take it apart and find whats broken or out of place. I just want to know if this is common at all and if anyone knows what it takes to fix it? Is it just one little piece thats out of place or does it need a new steering assembly? I know that last one is a little unlikely. But I would just like to figure this out before I make an offer. Here's what I'm thinkin on my offer. so he wants $1900, bluebook for the car in its current condtion and milage is $1800. I feel like If I offer $1600 I'll be doin pretty good despite the legroom dilema. Anyways I just wanted to see what the 4th gen vets got to say, and whats the most I should offer?
if i recall correctly there are a number of levers on the steering column. one of them you can use and it puts the steering wheel in the full up position so you can get out of the car more easily, then when u get back in u just pull the steering wheel back down and it locks back into the place you originally had it. make sure that you are not trying to use that lever to adjust the steering wheel as opposed to the correct lever which will lock it in whatever position you want. someone may have a picture to display what im talking about, but it sounds like this may be your problem.
I agree. I had to fiddle with it. You may already know if this is or isn't the case, but if you are not sure, go back and play with it. One lever locks/unlocks the current setting, the other one goes all the way up, like scorpin said, but i think it may go all the way down too. Make sure this isn't the issue. I don't know of any inherent problems with the steering column. Gluck
ohh... thats probably it. I was using the lever closest to the driver side door (LHD). where's the other one located? Wow, that makes me feel like a dink Thanks for the help.
I have had my steering column do the same thing when it is very cold out like -30 celcius but other than that I have not heard of any other complaints from other members. Although the column is backwards I have numbered the 3 levers to explain them. 1 - this is the telescopic function of the column it allows the steering wheel to move closer or farther away from you. 2 - this is the quick release lever that allows the steering wheel to be tilted to the fully raised posion. 3 - this is the lever you use to set the angle of the steering wheel that you like for driving. Pull the lever towards the back of the car and you should be able to raise/lower the angle of the steering wheel. When you have the steering wheel at the desired angle push lever 3 all the way forwards and it should lock the steering column at the angle you have selected. Once lever 3 is set you only need to use lever 2 and only theoretically when raiseing the wheel. When you use lever 2 it should cause the steering column to raise to the highest position automatically. To give you maximum room for exiting the vehicle. When you get back in all you should have to do is pull the steering wheel down and it should automatically lock lever 2 in the position you had previously set with lever 3. If you pull the steering wheel down and lever 2 does not automatically set you can try pushing lever 2 to he closed posaition while rocking the column up and down a bit. As you can see from the pic above rust can be a bit of a problem. It is possible to dissasemble the mechanism to some extent and clean out old grease and relube things.
