Choosing a replacement steering column

Yeh, your other thread there and your imaginary wheel....did a search, missed this...so...
the way it seems is you take that plastic 1/2 red/black and fit that piece to your white column, that should allow it to fit around your dash easy....

all the rest looks to be a bolt in swap, I was not happy with the shorter column with my 78+ column, so I made a plywood spacer and pulled the flange back off the firewall 3/4 inch flipped the aluminum spacers further two the wheel on the flanged, allowing the mount to work good...that made my wheel more comfortable for me in my classic James Dean driving slouch :gurney::drink: ....
 
You see how the mounting ears don't line up ? This difference is exactly what I was missing to get a good fit in the dash.
I then looked closer and found out the column had been collapsed.
Not the shaft at the end, you need to have it collapsed to accommodate a Borgeson, I'm talking about the main body of the column.
Damn!
So back to square one with the column. The old creepy '76 is all I'm gonna use for now. I'll have to reman the whole column to be able to uncollapse it.

YES, the column is a tad shorter, but with the tele all the way out, I THINK it's almost a inch shy of my old '72 fixed column...I did not do anything to my 78+ column, just as said before....flip over the potmetal/aluminum notch pieces the vertical bolts on the dash go through...and the thing fit fine with the 3/4 ply spacer to the firewall....wheel could come back a tad to suit ME, but being over tall like yourself, I suspect you can get used to it....wife is 5'6" and can drive it with a pillow under her butt and seat forward, and I went ape shit with the pedals years ago...to accomodate getting my legs off the TT wheel....

even that TT wheel was not enough for me....live with it a while, and you will most likely wind up doing what I did....it's a PIA to fit in any shark for guys our height.....

:surrender::smash:
 
Since I decided to do an overhaul of the '80 column, is there any rebuilt kit available?
I Did a quick search, all I found was rebuilt kit for the coupler (ragjoint?).
I'm talking about all the internal pieces that need to be replaced whatever the actual state of the column, stuff like bearing springs and washers.
 
The upper and lower bearings are no deal- officailly called "mast jacket bearings". If it's a tilt or T&T column, there's also a rack kit that is the drive for the ignition switch, again, any GM dealer should be able to supply that kit too. That's about all parts I know of that are wear items.
 
TimAT said:
The upper and lower bearings are no deal- officailly called "mast jacket bearings". If it's a tilt or T&T column, there's also a rack kit that is the drive for the ignition switch, again, any GM dealer should be able to supply that kit too. That's about all parts I know of that are wear items.
Click to expand...
Thanks Tim, see you soon IRL
 
I've got to run home for a few days- if you need any parts let me know and I'll bring back what I can.
 
You'll definitely need the retainer, since it crumbles when you touch it.
If your lower bearing is seized onto the shaft, then you will have to cut it off and will need the lower bearing and retainer.
For the price, the Dorman rack and sector pack is worth the 10 bucks at Autozone. Most have seen a better day.
They also have a new cylinder with 2 keys for about 10 bucks.
The upper bearings usually stay in pretty good shape.

Retainer1.jpg

LowerRetainerBearing.jpg

Part83211.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top