Steering Column Rebuild 69 Dart - what is the tube with the spring for?

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jcmeyer5

jcmeyer5

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There is this tube that goes over the shaft but inside the housing. It has a spring at the lower end. What does this thing do? Why is it there?
 
That tube and spring are there on the floor shift column as well. On a floor shift column it doesn't really do anything. It just covers the steering shaft. The spring just puts upward pressure on the tube so it doesn't rattle around.

Here is a picture of the outer column jacket and the inner tube of my floor shift column.
DSCN2196-zps9cb8b891.jpg
 
No purpose that I ever saw. It's locked from moving on the upper side by the collar. The spring pushes up on it to keep it in place.

My lower bearing was seized and needed to be replaced. The stock bearing is expensive so I installed an ER-16 bearing in its place. I had to shorten up the tube to get the bearing to seat on the outer column jacket. I also used the stock lower bearing plastic housing to support the tube on the inside. I flipped the plastic piece upside down and ground off the "nubs" so it fit inside the outer column jacket.(the stock bearing needs to be removed from the plastic first) The new bearing fits great.
DSCN2200_zpsdafea7a9.jpg
 
What I noticed last nights is a scraping sound when I turn the shaft. I suspect it is because the bearing turns, but the tube/spring do not. I’ll need to employ a solution similar to yours.
 
That's EXACTLY what I found. The spring rests on a section of the bearing that "turns" with the steering wheel. By using the old plastic bearing as a spacer, the spring rests on that instead of the bearing.
 
I did exactly as you did @burdar and used the old bearing body as a spacer. I shortened the tube by breaking the glue bond between the two sections, shortening it, and regluing it. All good now.
 
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