Ok so I am just a couple weeks away from finishing my 67 up. I installed a grant steering wheel(don't worry its temporary, I'm getting a Lecarra when I have the funds) cause I needed one that was smaller than the OEM wheel. Got it installed and now the whole thing moves. So I took it off and noticed my shaft is the culprit. I don't know if it is supposed to do that or not, but I would think no. What does this mean? I can't afford to redo the steering right now unfortunately.

 

First guess would be that your upper bearing is shot, if not you've got serious damage to the collar that surrounds it I would think. You're going to need to take the turn signal switch loose and take the snap ring off that secures the shaft to the column to go any farther. I don't see any alternative to taking it apart far enough to see what's making it so sloppy. Here's some pics of one I disassembled/refurbed with new bearing, this is a '68 collapseable I installed in place of my solid column '67 but they were the same at the top of the column pretty much:

You can see the snap ring in this pic, the black ring below it is a rubber sleeve that surrounds the upper bearing:





In this pic you can see the 'cup' that the rubber incased bearing sits into below it:





I still have my stock '67 column if you need more specific pics.
Jon

 

Replacing the berings will also help with wheel vibration. A lot of people get used to it when it's like that all the time, but when the berings are new, you shouldn't feel any vibration in the wheel even at highway speeds. It's not expensive.

CP

 

That sucks about your steering column. Hopefully, it is just the bearings.