oldyngoody

I have a 1991 LS400, and the powered tilt wheel mechanism became inoperable. My mechanic deduced it was the tilt wheel motor at an installed cost of around $500.

Recently, I read through some other members threads (as a guest) on this topic and they were very helpful. Sorry I can't give them their credit due because after joining Club Lexus, I can't find the same discussion threads. ?? Anyway, The diagnosis was simple and so was the do-it-yourself creative repair.


Problem:

The powered tilt wheel mechanism worked intermittantly or not at all. Inevitibly, the steering wheel would get locked in the full up position. The manual teloscopic feature was operable.



Diagonisis :

I patiently jiggled and played with the power buttons and key and was able to occasionally get the tilt wheel motor to activate. But, the wheel position didn't move. So, I deduced that the motor might be OK, and that maybe it was a gear issue instead. Since my car is a '91, i was hoping it might be lubrication. Time to take things apart.

1. Remove the Steering Column cover. It has a plastic upper and lower section that snaps together and is held in place by three screws (two on the bottom and one at the front, behind the steering wheel) You have to turn the wheel to access the one screw, but you dont have to take the steering wheel off.

2. Once removed, the Tilt motor and gear housing were visible on the left hand (driver door side) of the steering column. I then disassembled the metal gear housing cover (four easily accessible screws) to expose the Worm Drive and yellow plastic Tilt Gear Wheel. I played with the power buttons to eventually activate the motor and voila, I could see that the motor was driving the worm screw, but the wormscrew was not engaging the Yellow Plastic Gear Wheel. The gear wheel seemed like it was pushed back into the housing and out of alignment to the worm drive.

3. Remove the single center screw and metal washer securing the gear wheel. Carefully jiggle the yellow gear wheel passed the wormscrew and out of the housing. Observe and remember the front face of the gear wheel position for later reassembly (the gear cogs are angled to match up with the wormscrew spline).

4. There must have been some kind of spacer, that deteriorated over time, that held the gear wheel in place to the wormscrew. There was evidence of some black crumbled debris in the back of the housing that I carefully scraped out. I also removed any grease that looked too dry or fouled, but left as much as I could alone.

5. I ended up using a standard garden hose washer as a new spacer and placed it to the back of the housing and in front of a rear metal washer. It's not a perfect fit, but it is doing the trick so far.

6. Reinstall the gear wheel and single screw with metal washer.

7. I thoroughly sprayed a lithium grease around the wormscrew, gear wheel, washers and spacer. Let the grease stand to set for a few minutes. (I successfully tested the operation at this point, but it spun out the grease I just applied and I had to grease it again)

8. Replace the gear housing cover.

9. Test the operation. I am confident it will be back in proper working order. It has been a week since I repaired mine and the garden hose washer seems to be just fine. If it fails again, and it's not the motor, I will come up with a different retrofit spacer.


Total Cost = $6.00 (lithium grease spray and hose washer)
Total Time = approx 3 1/2 hours. (follow my instructions and you could be done in 1/2 time or less)

GOOD LUCK !!

steve2006

A picture says a thousand words.

BobN54

Very nice first hand summary! It takes a lot of searching to dig that out of the old threads (they've gotten quite long), so your writeup is helpful.