Yes, this is a common failure mode on this car. The bushing has a
rubber collar that separates two metal steering column connectors from
one another. When that coupling fails, it usually breaks the ground
wire that "jumps" the rubber bushing in order to allow the steering
column to be grounded - which is necessary for the horn to work. The
failure can cause the horn to either quit entirely or, become
intermittent depending on whether or not the wire has parted
completely. The big danger with this failure is that the steering
itself can fail altogether IF the rubber collar breaks completely
loose. It's so important that this dampening bushing not fail, that I
would try to buy a new one, if possible, and not rely on a used one.
When I fitted power steering from a Milano to my GTV-6, I had an
adapter made-up to mate the GTV-6 steering column to the Milano's
power steering rack (which are different). Since the Milano system
doesn't use this rubber collar between the steering column and the
rack, my car no longer uses this part.
George Graves
'86 GTV-6 3.0 'S'
On Dec 29, 2011, at 8:05 AM, [email protected] wrote:
I just found that on my low mileage 1983 GTV 6, that is has a fairly
common
problem in the steering column. There's a bushing in there that wears,
allowing enough play so that the horn doesn't always work.
Specifically, if I
push the top of the steering wheel away from me, no horn. If I pull
the top
of the wheel toward me, it works fine.
I have a good used one coming and won't be taking things apart until
that
arrives and survives inspection. I kind of expect the problem to be
some
variety of poor bushing material and lack of grease on assembly, so
I'm
strongly considering adding a grease fitting.
Has anyone else had to deal with this? Comments? How common a
problem is
it?
Stevan Thomas
1983 GTV 6
1973 Berlina
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