I had a problem with steering tilt. Basically, I narrowed it down to a broken motor, as I never heard it move. So I removed the panel below the steering wheel and removed the motor. When I tested it, it worked perfectly! So I tried tilting the wheel by hand (there is a "stick" which can be turned by han), but it didn't move so I figured it must be seized. So I just went ahead removing more bolts from the steering column, with the idea being that sooner or later I'll get to the actual mechanism which seized. Luckily, all I had to do was slightly loosen the 2 allen bolts right below the steering wheel, and it fixed the tilt!

I have no idea how this worked, I'm guessing they could've been factory over-tightened as there were no visible tool marks suggesting someone might have been there before me.

Edit:
I'm on the phone right now and will post some photos once I get to the computer.

 

Just speculation: But some of our columns feel a bit "loose" and can be wiggled up/down a bit, and in looking at the mechanism I can see where one might think that tightening those two big allen/hex-socket bolts would reduce that play (and it may). But over-tightening them could have the effect you've noted, where the system gets bound up.

Perhaps someone was trying to tighten up the column "slop" and an unintended side effect was locking up the mechanism?

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We have a winner!

Absolutely right, Al. Those bolts need to be tightened in small increments, side to side, just until the 'slop' is taken out of the column. They are never to be really "tightened". Doing so can lock up the column so it won't tilt.

Well done!