89 -90 Honda Pilot Steering Stem Bushing By hoser..

When I was cleaning and greasing my A-arm bushings I also noticed
that the bushing at the bottom of the steering stem was loose and worn
after removing steering yoke and tie rods a gentle tap of a rubber mallet
was all that was needed to remove the shaft.

Above you can see the bushing after the steering stem has been removed
To remove the bushing I used a 1/2" rod 30" long and a hammer to remove
the old bushing from the top, gentle tap tap tap was all that was needed.

After the steering stem was removed you could see the dirt and rust
on the shaft

A 3M pad made quick work of cleaning up the shaft.After the shaft was cleaned I 
measured for wear the shaft was .010 undersize where the bushing rides on 
the shaft any more than that I would be making a custom bushing that would be 1" 
taller so it would ride on a part of the shaft that was not worn.
See where the shaft is worn you can easily make a new bushing that is longer than stock 
and will ride higher on the shaft where it is not worn the only problem in Honda welds a 
support to the tubing that the bushing presses into you have to reduce the OD of the 
bushing where the welds are for clearance, I fabricated one of these hoserized
taller bushings and installed it on my wife's Pilot it  restored her steering perfectly.

Below you can see the upper end of the steering shaft,
it even has a plastic bushing that also was in need of 
some grease


Everything was cleaned, inspected, greased and then assembled.

I was going to drill a small hole in the steering stem so the bushing could be
oiled every once and a wile but decided not to after taking it apart.

Everything is so easy to take apart I am just going to add this to my 
yearly maintenance list and take it apart clean, inspect and grease.

The whole process to do this maintenance only took about 1-1/2 
hours, I highly recommend you doing this inspection these machines
are 10 years old now and you need to start looking into these items
that you normally take for granted

UPDATE 2012
More discussion on the steering bushing for both the FL350 and the FL400 Pilot found here