I have the clamp at the bottom of the column, which prevents it from pulling out, but my issue is the steering column moving down that far enough that the signal switch housing is rubbing against the shift collar sleeve.
The clamp also sets the spacing. It's not just so things don't pull up, but to hold them at the proper "preload" for lack of a better term. On the very early ones, it actually holds the lower bearing's inner race in place.
We've found that '74's have a crazy mishmash of parts from early and late models. Does your friend's have the early lower bearing, or the later 1-piece sealed unit?
On Broncos even the stock 1-piece shaft can move up and down because the old tulip joint had a lot of play in it. Your buddy's '74 probably has a rag-joint and a regular u-joint? Definitely much tighter, but it's still not the job of the joints to keep the shaft from moving in and out. In fact the aftermarket joints are even tighter than the factory ones in some cases.
Nor is it the job of the admittedly tighter factory 2-piece collapsible shaft to hold things in place. It's the lower clamp against the upper spring and c-clip.
The lower shaft is allowed to move all it wants and does not have to be limited. Yes, you could put a set-screw between the two halves to act as kind of a limiter, or even weld it (neither a good idea though, as it would defeat the safety aspects of the collapsible shaft) but you should not have to.
Unless I'm remembering it wrong, the column shaft is retained exclusively by the lower clamp keeping it from moving up, and the upper c-clip to keep it from going too far down, and the spring to keep the upper bits from rubbing on each other.
Maybe in your case there is no c-clip because the parts are rubbing on each other when pushed down too far, but there is still a balance to be struck between the upper spring and lower clamp.
I've seen plenty of Bronco columns you could push hard enough on that it would rub parts together. The trick is to loosen the lower clamp, have a helper push down on the steering wheel just enough to tighten up the gaps, but not enough to make things rub on each other, then re-tighten the clamp.
Maybe Jim knows if that upper c-clip on the early columns is there to limit the downward movement. But my own '71 could be pushed hard enough against the upper spring to make things rub. I remember seeing the groove, but don't remember a clip. But it's been so long it could have been there and I simply did not need to mess with it.
I basically pushed down until things touched, then let the spring push up until the parts separated by a tiny amount (less then 1/8" or so if I remember) then tightened the clamp. Drove it that way for many years and never had anything rub.
That spring is pretty strong.
You could even grab some material of the thickness you'd like your gaps to be, slip it in between the parts and push hard up against them to set the gap. Then slide the lower clamp as far up as it will go.
If that does not do the job, we'll need pics!
But let us know about the type of bearing at least. Very curious about that always with '74's.
Maybe even post up what month the Bronco was built based on the door pillar decal.
Thanks
Paul
