Hello,
Same thing happened to mine, as well as a few other people here. I had a thread on it a while back here but it must have been deleted. I sent mine in for warranty repair and it came back fine. I also use a little longer screw to hold the steering wheel on to remove some of the slop. It will take a little while but you'll get it back fine.

Just call Hitec customer service and they will take care of you.

Regards,
DFS