I need to replace the steering column stalk switch pack as the plastic mounting collar is broken. I've pulled out everything that I can including having to strip down the MOMO steering wheel amost to it's component parts; that is going to be a right PIA to refit.
Do I have to undo the bottom UJ or is there a way of removing the top column adjuster so that I can slide the switch assembly off?

 

OK, you are nearly there.

Looking just below that collar you will see an "allen head" grub screw (forgot the size) with a lock nut (11mm), undo that, PRAY it dont break.

Then just a tad below that is a "cotter bolt", which is 11mm head and nut, undo that, and slide the bolt from that casting.

The adjuster thingy will now slide off.

Reassembly is obvious, but lining up the splines, self cancelling cam, and not breaking that "allen screw" will test your sense of humour, but after you have done it 6 or 7 times, it will be do-able with your eyes shut.

 

Thanks, now all I have to do is lose about 50 pounds and grow a flexible spine or an eye on a stalk!

 

HAHAHA, I found a sense of humour, lubricated well with JD works just fine.

I just did the same on a S3 since typing that, and it took longer to gather the tools than do the job. That was #10 for me now, so "monkey see monkey do" HAHA again.

No need to get under anything, that grub screw and cotter bolt are clearly visible in that snap you took.

 

Thanks Grant, job done and a lot easier than I expected, just had to tug the column a few times to drag it out.
I presume that the grub screw is supposed to align with the groove in the splined shaft when it goes back together because it didn't appear to do so when I pulled it all apart.
Hopefully I can remember how to put it all together when I get back from work next week! The job is not helped by the fact that the person who sold me the replacement switch pack cut all the wires instead of pulling the plugs apart. Silly ****.
Another pressing job is to try and stop the goddamn pigeons from resting on the high tension cables overhead and crapping all over the car; short of machine gunning them, got any ideas? 'Elf and Safety won't let anyone attach any spikes or anything so I'm a bit scuppered.

 

SWEET.

That grub screw is generally left out by me, as I still see no reason for its existence. That cotter bolt slides thru a machined groove, and that stops anything sliding apart, even if that bolt comes loose. The nut CANNOT come off that bolt, as it is a nyloc nut, requiring 2 spanners for most of its travel.

The pigeons, try a rubber snake, or 2, from a toy shop. Works here in the apricot tree for the starlings etc.

 

We had problems here with swallows trying to build nests on our outside lights, and pigeons also on the pole wires crapping on our vehicles.
I read about, and did buy two plastic life-like OWLS, available in the local hardware store, and simply wired them to the eave of the house and on a branch of a maple tree next to our driveway. -Problem solved. The pigeons now watch from two houses away, and the swallows are long-gone.

 

I'll have a look at some plastic beasties when I get home; maybe a giant plastic spider that could shut the damn chickens up next door aswell!

 

Forgot to ask before: when I bought the car the horn push didn't work and the horn was operated via a push button hanging out of the consol.
Now that I have everything apart I can see that the soldered feed wire has broken off the connection on the plastic spigot thingy that slides down inside the column. As far as I can recall the feed to the button is a purple wire; where should it be connected to in order to power the horn push buttons?

 

Steve, shove your head down the footwell and look up at the column and you will see a couple of VERY gimcrack copper slip-ring feelers with curled over ends to which the loom wires are 'attached'. These fall out, do not make good contact etc etc.

The horns are wired to be always live at the actual horn, so the feed only needs earthing for them to sound, so testing if the loom is OK to the slip ring is easy.

Greg

 

Ok Greg, thanks.
Just to be sure though: there are 2 slip rings on the column, one above and one below the mounting bracket. The lower one has a socket for a bullet connector but the upper doesn't (maybe snapped off?). Which wire should go on which slip ring? At the moment there is a black wire going from a column bolt onto the push button where it exits as a purple and black wire. Hanging out of the loom is another purple and black wire.

 

The wire from the bolt to the button is to earth the circuit, thereby activate the horns, switched by the button. The purple and black to the button is the live feed from the horns themselves. The purple and black needs to go to the copper wiper, attached at the bullet, which then transmits the current to the horn button, via the thing in the column. When pressed horn button in the steering wheel earths the feed to activate the horns.

The purple and black hanging off the loom (near the column wiper I presume?) probably is the horn feed. Earth it and see if the horns work. If so attach the bullet to the copper.

I cannot look at my car ATM, but if the other purple and black is near the column wipers too, try attachinging that (somehow) via the second wiper, disconnecting the first, and see if the horns work. If so, it is almost certainly a redundant circuit put there to ensure the horns have a backup circuit.

If you need me to take off the knee panel and look, I'll be able to do it at the W/E

Greg

 

Thanks Greg. I'm away until next week so I'll carry on then.
In the centre of the column is a sort of spigot thing that goes down inside the column; there was a wire off the steering wheel soldered on but that has broken off; where does the feed to the spigot come from?

 

The feed comes from the copper wipers. The column has an interior plastic insert that somehow insulates the current from the copper wipers from the column metal. The plastic/nylon centrepiece at the bottom of the spigot has a metal piece in the bottom centre that somehow makes contact with the current from the wiper.

If this insulating piece in the column interior fails, ther whole column has to be junked and replaced if you want the horns to work as standard! The soldered wire is what makes the current go from the top of the spigot to the horn button (which when pressed earths to the column) if you have an aftermarket wheel. I have a Motolita and had to do this mod to make the horns work. The OEM wheel did not need it.

On mine the bottom wiper has the connection. I cannot remember about the top wiper. Suck it and see with the bottom only, I suggest.

Greg

 

Mine's a Motolita too and what a PITA it was getting it off, a real struggle to get the grub screws out because of the huge rubber ring, tighter than a sphinx's sphincter.
I'm going to drill through it so that I can get the allen key to line up properly.
Once I've fitted the replacement instrument cluster of course.