Abstract: An energy-absorbing motor vehicle steering column including a housing supported on a body structure of the vehicle for linear translation in a collapse direction and an energy absorber which converts into work a fraction of the kinetic energy of an impact on the steering column. The energy absorber includes a bare flat metal ribbon, i.e., without friction-reducing coating or lubrication, preformed to define a pair of parallel straight sections and a lateral web between the straight sections. The ribbon is seated edge-wise on a horizontal wall of the steering column housing with the straight sections in a pair of longitudinal guide channels and the lateral web looped over a pair of laterally spaced bare anvils on the housing and wedged between the bare anvils and an abutment on the body structure on the other side of the lateral web from the anvils.

Abstract: An intermediate steering shaft including a polygonal tubular shaft, a polygonal solid shaft telescopically received in the polygonal tubular shaft, a spring which thrusts the solid and tubular shafts in opposite lateral directions to eliminate lash attributable to running clearance between the solid and tubular shafts, and a control operative from outside of the tubular shaft to relieve the lateral thrust of the spring. The solid shaft has an outside longitudinal groove facing an inside longitudinal groove in the tubular shaft and cooperating with the inside longitudinal groove in defining a longitudinal passage between the solid and tubular shafts. The spring is a helical coil spring wedged between the inside and the outside longitudinal grooves. The control includes a lever on the coil spring and a lateral slot in the tubular shaft through which the lever protrudes.