So following the recovery of my stolen Xj last week, I was faced with a busted ignition housing. Of course you can't just get that particular part, Chrysler will try and sell you the whole column, so I went searching and found this site that has pretty good general instructions for some Jeep, Dodge and Chrysler cars of that era, while avoiding most clockspring and airbag troubles.
http://www.stolenandrecovered.com/howto/hsg04.phpThe main differences between the general instructions and the actual process for the XJ is that the steering column coupler is fastened with a bolt, not a roll pin, so that part is easy, although there was some red thread locker on there. Secondly, the retaining washer, spring and bushing are inside the bottom of the column, and you have to remove the entire thing (4x 15mm nuts) to get access to the retaining materials and perform the swap.
I headed out to the Calgary Pick n Pull to get a housing and practice on a corpse. Things went smoothly and I would recommend keeping the retaining washer, spring and bushing just in case they get lost or damaged when performing the repair on the real XJ. Cost about $16.00 for the housing, and I was even able to re-use the original lock cylinder. I did have to swap over the remaining ignition switch internals however.
Cheers!
Topic: 2000 xj Steering Column rebuild (Read 1082 times)