There is a lot of friction in my steering which is unpleasant. I tracked it down to the upper column bush thing, the two piece plastic affair with the big rubber grommet. So I bought another one which arrived by post today. Just pushing the inner into the outer and turning it there is quite a lot of friction. Is this normal? Should I be greasing it or something?

Is it lined-up? No angles which are to steep. Uj's.

If everything ok, then put on some vaseline or use some white grease to lubricate.

If the grommet is made out of rubber, don't use vaseline or other petroleum-based lubricants, as they will cause the rubber to break down in short order. Use a silicone-based grease (eg. brake-parts grease) or silicone grease from a scuba shop. As it happens, the bushing on my steering column was less than good, so today I turned a new one out of 25mm PTFE (similar to Teflon) on my little Unimat lathe. Very slick bearing, as it's self-lubricating, and no rattles or looseness. To retain the bearing in the column, I drilled a small hole through the outer housing & into the bearing, and used a stout self-tapping screw to secure it in place.

This bush isn't rubber (unless I'm thinking of the wrong thing). It's 2 pieces of hard plastic, probably nylon, with one turning in the other.

I used some general-purpose grease. You do have to make sure that everything lines up as there shouldn't be any significant stiffness.

David

Yes, there are two pieces of hard plastic, the outer of which is held in a big rubber grommet. The bearing faces are in plastic.

I'm going to fit the new bearing tonight to see if it is any better than the old.

Fitted the new bush today, with a bit of grease. It has cured the problem, by a lot. It is so much better now. The old plastic inner has picked up a bit. it is quite visible. I suppose its cheaper than a proper bearing.