My steering wheel has slight play in it front to back. If you grab the wheel with both hands, you can move it slightly front to back (by independently pushing and pulling from easy side). If someone is putting all of their weight on the steering wheel to get up and down, will this cause the issue? I have someone in the boat that has been using it this way and now there seems to be the play/slack in it. I would not think it’s load bearing.

I’ve pulled the steering wheel off, but I haven’t gone beyond that. It’s not steering side to side, it’s pushing and pulling on the steering wheel.

Any advice on a fix?