hello..ever since i bought my 92 firebird my steering wheel has been upside down...i was wondering if there was a "easy" way to fix it...can if be fixed if i go get an alignment???

thanks for any help happy new years!

 

I would get it aligned first and mention that to the technician.

 

If I recall correctly there's only one way you can put a steering wheel on so its not likely that it was put on upside down. Further more I highly doubt your alignment could be so far out of whack that it could make your steering wheel that wrong. If it was than you have some other serious issue to attend to like the frame being bent from an accident.

What I think most likely happened was some one replaced the steering box and installed the steering column on wrong. The way the spline is designed it can only go on one way but there's nothing preventing you from putting it on +/-360 degrees (or any multiple) off. Meaning if everything was correct and you removed the steering column from the steering box and then manually turned the input shaft on the steering box 360 degrees you could reinstall the steering column but the wheels will be pointed one revolution of the steering wheel in the wrong direction while the steering wheel remains strait.

Now while I would still first look over your front suspension to confirm that its not caused by something horribly wrong, if you check and find everything is good the solution I would give is to point the wheels strait remove the steering column from the steering box turn the wheel till its in the correct position and re-attach it. Now there is one major catch and that catch is the fact that your steering column has wires for things like the turn signals. The wires are designed to have enough play to account for the wheel turning to either extreme left or right however now you don't know how the wires are situated in relation to the steering wheel position. For all you know the wheel could have been turned one revolution to the right from its correct position when it was reinstalled and now after you make the correction the wires may not have enough play to make a full turn in both directions. So in a sharp turn you could rip the wires out from wrapping them around the column. What this means is youll also have to pull the steering wheel off and make sure you have enough play in the wires to make turns in both directions without putting any tension on them. Also be aware your car should be equipped with a air bag so be careful with that when your remove the steering wheel.

 

Pull the bolt from the steering shaft/column by the power brake booster, loosen the stering column bolts from the firewall by your gas/brake pedals and under the dash. seperate the shaft from where you removed the bolt just enought rotate the steering wheel into the correct position. put the shafts back together(thats where a buddy pushing from inside the car helps, but not a must) and put all the bolts back in. the shaft and or box was removed at some point and simply installed 180deg off, should only take half hour or so to do.

 

No need to loosen the column bolts to pull the shaft back from the firewall. The shaft to the box collapses and can be pulled back and re-installed at this joint near the brake booster. That's what has happened. Someone's removed the shaft and re-installed with this double d joint 180 out.