steering column not reaching rack ???
 

hey everyone im new to CL and new to forums anyways ran into a problem i just bought a 2000 gs300 i noticed that there was play in the steering wheel while driving the car wouldnt stay straight so i took a peak under my steering column and found it was loose by the u joint at the fire wall i shook it it feel apart and well now i have a good 3 to 4 inches of space with the column extended out and now when its extened in its not long enough im just glad it popped out in the drive way anyone have a clue and i just bought a used steering rack with the bar that goes through the fire wall still same problem help ???

pics
 

pics
 

It appears you are missing the bolt that secures the steering shaft to the coupling. You will need to obtain a new bolt before you can put the steering shaft back together. Good thing you found it rather than it happening while you were driving. It very well could have been nasty for you.

the shaft does not reach the coupling pic 1 is the steering wheel set back towards the dash and pic 2 is steering wheel extended out toward the driver

Have you looked under the hood? Looks to me like the shaft has detached from the rack too.

What you see in the pics is the intermediate shaft. The steering column connects to the intermediate shaft and the intermediate shaft connects to the rack. My guess is that the bolts are missing from the coupler at the rack and that the shaft has slipped down onto the steering coupler (it's designed to slip to allow the rack to be disconnected). It's a sign that the other bolts are probably loose or missing too.

Honestly, it looks like someone tried to murder you.

Just to clarify this. If only one bolt was missing or loose, the system would still be safe. It has fail-safes built into it so no single loose bolt would let it disconnect. For it to be this way, there has to be multiple loose or missing bolts.

thanks for the info ill take pics of the rack.I bought the car with this problem that i had no idea of like i said i bought a steering rack swapped it in with a new intermediate shaft thinking that was the problem with the new one all bolts are connected that shaft from the column does not reach the intermediate shaft me and my friend have spent hrs on this cant figure it out stumpped thanks for the help so far guys

I think it's possible the steering column part has been pressed up into the column. I have a GS steering column sitting loose. I'll try to remember to measure how long the shaft is so, you can compare.

left side of pic is firewall side i took the pic from under the car happy thanks giving to everone

Loosen the bolt closest to the firewall then tug on the intermediate shaft. I think you have the intermediate shaft plugged too deep into the coupler. Don't take the bolt all the way out. Just loosen it up a bunch.

have you tried messing with the distance on the steering wheel switch and see if it changes the distance of the coupling?

Tap the shaft up with a small hammer. Shaft should have a sliding point somewhere. Probably a little stuck.

Thanks for the help so far I've tried loosing up the shaft to get most out of it for distance it still doesn't make up for the gap with the steering wheels extended I went out to try and tap on the shaft but I can't pull it in for clearance for the hammer because the battery decided to die on me I have It on the charger so I'll have to wait til tomorrow to try it

The car has 105k I paid 3k for it as of now I have to fix this problem a evap problem and a vsc light no rot though I'm in love with the car so I'm willing to put her back into tip top shape :)