Hey guys,

In the process of changing out my first lower steering shaft bearing and I am down to removing the bearing. Can anyone tell me how to get the bearing housing to release from the column tube. I don't want to tear anything up trying to beat it out. It definitely has a ton of play in it.

BTW I can see the two tangs on the new bearing housing but there is no hole in the column tube to push them for release.

Thanks in advance,

Never mind. Just took a little pry with a screw driver between the bearing housing and the column housing. Old bearing (green revised version) had no visual signs of wear but I could move the steering shaft ~.030 up and down prior to bearing removal. Installed new SS bearing and lateral play was gone. Test drive revealed clunk is gone. The dealer installed the first SS bearing (green) at 21K; now have 43K and rattle was really bothering me again. I suspect the green housing was just a "good enough" fix to get the vehicle out of the warranty period :) The steering shaft design is crappy with the fat part of the tapper at the lower end of the shaft. It will be tought to replace with a steel bearing due to the taper as first noted by RCH. I am going to machine a new upper steering shaft with no tapper and utilize a steel roller bearing to finally fix this problem.