hi

I took out the tube casing 36 of the steering column by unscrewing bolts 23 and 27 (2 pcs. each)

when I took out bolts 27, the adjusting spacer 28 (made of plastic!) fell apart In 5 pieces.

my questions are: what is the ROLE of that weird spacer? should I order an original one? or can I use something else.

if I screw back bolt 27 all the way minus that plastic spacer, the tube casing keep sliding back and forth. is that normal?? I doubt that flimsy spacer is used as a thrust washer...

please advice.

That spacer has a double role (see photo). One is to locate the center of the bolt at approximately 11 mm from the edge of the sliding hole and the other is to act as a normal spacer. Your spacer got brittle and disintegrated from aging, normally that plastic is resembling Teflon (without Tom) when it's new.

 

You can use a 2.5 - 3 mm Teflon spacer instead, but you have to fiddle the column casing back and forth to get that 11 mm dimension right.