How long should the sierra steering column compressible bit be. Just looked at mine and it is not obviously compressed, but looks shorter that pictures I have seen of the column on the web. The length of my black compressible bit is 125mm. How else could I tell if the column has been compressed at all ?

didn't say compressed or compressible enough in this post so here's a few more..


compressed
compressible
compressed
compressible
compressed

on my car its silver but its also 125mm so I don"t think yours has been compress or squashed

i think its been mention on here before have you tried a search,think theres a picture as well.
if i find it i,ll post it
barrie

thanks people,

did search the picture is in ChrisW 's archive ( http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/photos.php?action=showphoto&photo=column.jpg )and shows a column that has been completely compressed. I thought maybe mine had been partially compressed but now the 125mm be has been clarified I guess it hasn't. Just being paranoid, didn't want to fail the SVA based because of it.

thanks again

That picture looks like mine, and it's not been crashed. I had a moment when I thought it was, but I checked the Haynes manual, and it shows the standard steering column with the corrugated bit expanded, and the adjustable steering column with the corrugated bit compressed. Mine is adjustable and looks the same as ChrisW's photo. I've put the haynes manual drawings in my photo section.

Cheers
John

Sorry thought that that was the picture being refered to. There was another picture of a standard column that had been compressed and looked much like ChrisW's pic.

The pic is of an adjustable column,non adjustable standard columns look a bit different(longer concertina part on column).

I've used the shorter concertina type as in the picture and had no problems at SVA with it,the examiner gave the steering wheel a few BIG tugs and that was that.

I doubt very much a compressed column would look that neat anyway,but if in doubt have a look in a later sierra/granada manual which has a picture of the shorter type compression part to confirm.