Well, sounds like something has broken! I have big difficulty getting the Steering Saver to open as the Spring is so hard.

Why was the Silver Ring screwed right down? My guess is that when you hitted the curb, the steering(Servo) saver couldn't open because the Silver Ring was all the way down. Something had to give & instead of the servo, the part which was push down by the spring went.

When you said"the steering saver comes into action even with the tires on a metal table. " Is the spring not compressed? If the Saver is working correctly, the 2 plastic parts underneath the spring should come apart compressing the spring.

Normanski