DIY: Telescoping Column Motor Removal/Repair (3 Viewers)
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ChuckB
SILVER Star
Great thread!
I recently noticed that only my UP tilt motion is not working. The other three directions work fine. I disabled the tele/tilt feature years ago.
I didn't see anyone else have the exact problem. The steering wheel is in a somewhat acceptable position for me as my wife daily drives the Cruiser. However, my in-laws will be driving the Cruiser this weekend and I need to convince them not play with tilt feature...
Is it possible to move the steering wheel up and down with the square/hex bolt head in the middle of the motor manually or am I looking at the pictures wrong? Haven't crawled under the column yet until I can wrestle the keys from the wife.
I recently noticed that only my UP tilt motion is not working. The other three directions work fine. I disabled the tele/tilt feature years ago.
I didn't see anyone else have the exact problem. The steering wheel is in a somewhat acceptable position for me as my wife daily drives the Cruiser. However, my in-laws will be driving the Cruiser this weekend and I need to convince them not play with tilt feature...
Is it possible to move the steering wheel up and down with the square/hex bolt head in the middle of the motor manually or am I looking at the pictures wrong? Haven't crawled under the column yet until I can wrestle the keys from the wife.
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For the tilting adjustment, I undid the connector and the 2 allen bolts that holds the motor assy to the column & rotate the whole motor some turns, then redo the two bolts and replug the connector. Just make sure the bolts are at the required torque, because it would be a bad day if the motor fell out.. Safety first, do at own risk, etc.!
ChuckB
SILVER Star
Thanks, I'll look into it!
Hello Cruisers! I've spent a long time roaming these forums but this is my first post. I'm excited to have recently found a well maintained 2007 LX470. I'm gradually working through maintenance items but the telescoping mechanism has me a little stumped, even after scouring all the various forums/posts on the topic.
I understand that I should be able to manually telescope the steering wheel (albeit with some difficulty). When I remove the bracket, bushing and nut from the telescoping screw so that there's no connection to the steering column, I can't for the life of me pull/push the steering wheel. It's not that it's difficult, it literally won't budge at all. It seems like everyone else gets some movement, so they can grease the column and at least improve the movement.
Am I missing something simple here?
I understand that I should be able to manually telescope the steering wheel (albeit with some difficulty). When I remove the bracket, bushing and nut from the telescoping screw so that there's no connection to the steering column, I can't for the life of me pull/push the steering wheel. It's not that it's difficult, it literally won't budge at all. It seems like everyone else gets some movement, so they can grease the column and at least improve the movement.
Am I missing something simple here?
You might want to remove the telescoping motor for that kind of movement, not the tilt motor
I'm not touching the tilt motor, that works fine. I'm only referring to the components related to the telescoping movement and motor (i.e. long worm screw that leads down to the telescope motor; and the bracket, bushing and nut that secure the long screw near the steering wheel). When I detach the screw from near the steering wheel, the motor works as expected. I know it still may need to be replaced but I haven't wanted to replace it until I'm confident that the steering wheel can actually move in/out.
It seems everyone else on this thread has gotten at least some in/out movement manually but I'm not getting any.
Here's another thought I had. With everything put back together, I tried to pull the steering wheel while pulling the tilt/telescope motor joystick toward me, thinking with decent force I should be able to make the steering wheel move even if the telescope motor is too weak. Still nothing.
Any other ideas?
If only one of the movement directions isn´t working, I suspect that there is a failure in the signal that tells the ECU what and in which direction to move. This signal is only a tension or electric potential, made by a simple resistor network with one input voltage from the ECU and different output voltages depending on wether side you push the adjustment button.
Before trying to move something manually, why don´t you measure the switches output voltages? It´s easier to access than the tilt mecanism and if this is the failure, a lot more eascier and cheaper to repair.
I think to remember that in the workshop manual, diagnostic section, the different potentials for every one of the 4 switch directions are described.
YES! Remove the whole steering column, dismantle it, if necessary with carefully dosified brute force, and clean all that old "grease" what very probably is what makes any movement impossible. As I wrote in an earlier post, my telescopic mecanism also seemd to be completely blocked, until I loosened the two screws that presses the wedges with coil-springs towards the interior column part. Once opened, it moved easily.
Oh man, my written english gots worse from day to day; I need 15 minutes to write to phrases. Grrr!
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Thanks @HDJ100inSpain. I ended up with a different solution. I pulled the steering wheel covers and the black cover just below the gauge cluster this weekend to get a better look. There is a second nut further down the telescoping screw that I was able to get a small 10mm (IIRC) wrench on. I was only able to turn it about 1/8 turn, but it clearly was just enough to "un-budge" the system. I then turned ignition to ON and was able to get the telescope motor to move the steering wheel out to its furthest position. With that said, the motor seems very weak, even after lubing all nearby parts, so it will ultimately need to be replaced. In the meantime, I put the steering wheel in the position I want and just removed the tilt/telescope fuse.
@Amski: Nice, that you could have loosened the mecanism turning the adjustment axle. Now, unblocked, when you try to move the telescopic mecanism manually (with dismounted bracket), is this possible without using a lot of force? If not, a new motor will work for a while and then also end messed up. This is like "repairing" a blocking-rusty handbrake pressing harder the gas pedal 
Better would be to make the mecanism move easily.
When your telecopic motor still is working, why do you want to put a new one? Try the metod I described some posts ago, open the motor, clean it and put a shim in.
It´s easy, it´s cheap and it is worth to give it a try
Better would be to make the mecanism move easily.When your telecopic motor still is working, why do you want to put a new one? Try the metod I described some posts ago, open the motor, clean it and put a shim in.
It´s easy, it´s cheap and it is worth to give it a try
Amski, could you please share which fuse you pulled for the tilt/tele system. Both my tilt and tele just stopped working at the same time so I think it is something other than the motors but can't locate a blown fuse. Might be the ECU.
Sure, it’s #19 on the passenger side panel. See images, hope this helps.@Amski: Nice, that you could have loosened the mecanism turning the adjustment axle. Now, unblocked, when you try to move the telescopic mecanism manually (with dismounted bracket), is this possible without using a lot of force? If not, a new motor will work for a while and then also end messed up. This is like "repairing" a blocking-rusty handbrake pressing harder the gas pedal
When your telecopic motor still is working, why do you want to put a new one? Try the metod I described some posts ago, open the motor, clean it and put a shim in.
It´s easy, it´s cheap and it is worth to give it a try
Thank you, that helps a lot.
@Amski: Nice, that you could have loosened the mecanism turning the adjustment axle. Now, unblocked, when you try to move the telescopic mecanism manually (with dismounted bracket), is this possible without using a lot of force? If not, a new motor will work for a while and then also end messed up. This is like "repairing" a blocking-rusty handbrake pressing harder the gas pedal
When your telecopic motor still is working, why do you want to put a new one? Try the metod I described some posts ago, open the motor, clean it and put a shim in.
It´s easy, it´s cheap and it is worth to give it a try
@HDJ100inSpain I don't recall that I tried to move the column manually after adjusting the second nut further down. I was so surprised to see the motor work that I lost my wits and just started playing with the motor! I'm a little uncertain about the procedure you mention above. I've honestly never had to work on my steering column before and I don't have the FSM, so I'm hesitant. I may be wrong but it seems like the issue on my 2007 is more so related to the motor and the lubrication of the worm screw and nuts. I don't know if the telescoping mechanism changed for 2006-2007, but it seems to look and operate differently than other pictures I've seen on this forum and elsewhere.
EDIT: I have to retract the above somewhat. I went back to the OP and it does look like the same mechanism. I still don't know the answer about why I can't manually push/pull the steering wheel when I take off the main bracket/bushing/nut. I'll eventually get back to this but on to other issues for now!
Thank you for for this thread. Yesterday I replaced the tilt and telescopic motors. Searching for specific part numbers let me find new OEM parts for under $200 each. The new motors are working smoothly. Surprisingly I didn't find any post installation issues. I would like to post some pictures and couple of things that seemed to make the installation go smoothly. Removing the front seat provided ample working room. The time spent removing the seat was worth the trade-off to gain additional accessibility to the work area.
I didn't have a problem using a screwdriver to remove the tilt motor ring clips. For re-installation, I used long nose locking pliers (vice grips) like the one in the picture to clamp and hold the clip into position. The pliers made inserting the clips an easy task.
For the telescopic motor, I changed the 10mm M6 x 1.0 bolts to socket head cap screws. Being able to mount the screw on a socket driver for installation worked for the upside down installation. As a personal preference, I've had better luck with socket head cap screws than conventional bolts when working in extremely tight areas. If you do not have an issue reinstalling the stock 10mm screws., then you will not need to make this change.
Since the upper bolt is in a tight location, after starting the cap screw with the socket, I used a long hex wrench to reach that screw for the final tightening.
I bought the M6 x 1.0 stainless socket head cap screw in the Hillman fastener section of my local Ace Hardware.
Old vs. New Motors
Telescopic
Tilt - I moved the shaft to the new motor before the picture.
Be sure to move the brown mounting spacer (highlighted) from old to new motor.
I didn't have a problem using a screwdriver to remove the tilt motor ring clips. For re-installation, I used long nose locking pliers (vice grips) like the one in the picture to clamp and hold the clip into position. The pliers made inserting the clips an easy task.
For the telescopic motor, I changed the 10mm M6 x 1.0 bolts to socket head cap screws. Being able to mount the screw on a socket driver for installation worked for the upside down installation. As a personal preference, I've had better luck with socket head cap screws than conventional bolts when working in extremely tight areas. If you do not have an issue reinstalling the stock 10mm screws., then you will not need to make this change.
Since the upper bolt is in a tight location, after starting the cap screw with the socket, I used a long hex wrench to reach that screw for the final tightening.
I bought the M6 x 1.0 stainless socket head cap screw in the Hillman fastener section of my local Ace Hardware.
Old vs. New Motors
Telescopic
Tilt - I moved the shaft to the new motor before the picture.
Be sure to move the brown mounting spacer (highlighted) from old to new motor.
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What would be a reasonable labor quote for a shop or dealer to replace the telescoping motor? Just took delivery of my 06 LC and telescope motor doesn't function (no sound, no nothing). Thanks!
Thanks for the input. In fact I got so fed up with the sensors and suspension that I ripped it out and put OME and not a problem since doing so 4 years ago. Pity I waited 10 years. Unlike my FJ80 and FJ40 o bloody electronics to fail! Imagine a “modern” Land Cruiser without unnecessary electronics...best, Ed
Do you have a link to these voltages for the switch? I can't find them in FSM. Currently getting .28v to the red/grey wire going into the switch, and very low values coming out of the switch into the white/grey wire when trying different positions. Fuse is good in pass foot well...but no pwr at motors.
