Hello all!

My '93 Sidekick is equipped with a kind of rubber damper in the direction column.

Is that a standard equipment?  I have'nt seen it on pictures posted in this forum before.  I wonder if this is an addition made by the previous owner?

Actually, the rubber parts are getting worn and the result is that I can turn the steering wheel of about 20 degrees in any direction without any reaction from the front wheels!  Make driving kind of fun (in a very childish, irresponsable way) but I have some worries about losing direction if I lost these dampers completely.

Can that really happen?

I think the part that you are talking about is called a rag joint, yes they do break and yes you will loose all steering, I took mine out and turned the wheel 9o deg. and bolted it back together leaving it out, you could do that if you break loose the part holding the shaft from dropping out( a small plastic piece) or maybe heat it up a little while pulling the other parts together with a couple of bolts. have fun but get it fixed.

autozone in the help section its like 7 or 10 bucks with new bolts