Whine coming from steering column

Hi Nolan,

Yep, with 30 years in the automotive field I have seen my share of steering column noises, It sounds like it could be a bearing at the base of the column. Can you hear kind of where the noise is being generated? top or bottom? Also I have seen where the steering box will telescope noise up the column. We need to get an idea of where it is coming from to start.

Please let me know what you find so we can get this fixed and back on the road.

Here is a pic of an exploded view of the column

Its coming from right where the shaft goes through the fire wall into the eng compartment. Theres a plastic piece around the shaft where it goes thru and i think its coming from there

Try to use a small amount of lube at the firewall boot such as wd40 and see if that helps, please get back to me.

I already tried that. It was in my original question

When i hold a stethoscope on the bottom of the steering column, directly below the tilt adjust lever, i can hear it there. Is there a bearing in there somewhere?

Yes, a bearing is right at the bottom of the column tube. You might have to take apart the column to replace it. #13 in the pic I posted earlier. Seems weird though, I have not replaced many of these but its not impossible that the bearing went bad. Can you remove the intermediate shaft to see if the noise is still there?

removed the intermediate shaft and there is no noise in the column. So its definately coming from below that

That only leaves the steering box, It must be going bad or have a bad bearing. Check it out and let me know.