What am I looking at?

This is a pic looking down the lock cylinder tube of the steering column. at the bottom of the shaft is the sector, what is the gold part underneath it? Whatever it is moves around with a push of a screw driver. I can't seem to find in on the exploded parts diagrams i've found online. this is a 77 standard column, ( the truck is a 77, and I assume it's the original column.)


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It looks kind of like it might be a piece of that safety retaining clip (i.e. normally the first thing you see when you pop the horn button off). IDK - sorry, that's all I've got:





Here is a pretty decent exploded view of a 77 non-tilt column that might be of some help:

It looks like it might be the sector gear. That moves the switch rod from the key cylinder.

the part below or to the lower right of the sector, sort of gold in color.. the round piece with a tang off to the left
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chengny said:

It looks kind of like it might be a piece of that safety retaining clip (i.e. normally the first thing you see when you pop the horn button off). IDK - sorry, that's all I've got:

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Thanks Jerry, I'm not sure how the clip could get in there, but I guess anything's possible. looks like I'll be tearing more of the column apart.

Any chance it could be a part for the steering wheel lock? It hasn't worked since I got the truck.

DanMcG said:

Thanks Jerry, I'm not sure how the clip could get in there, but I guess anything's possible. looks like I'll be tearing more of the column apart.

Any chance it could be a part for the steering wheel lock? It hasn't worked since I got the truck.

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I think I might have found it - check the instructions below and see what you think. Since you can actually see the piece and I am looking at a blurry little photo - you'll be a better judge than I will.

If it is what I think it is (an adapter ring), it won't be shown on any column views. That is because it is an integral part of the actual cylinder lock and was probably not ever sold separately? But I am really shooting from the hip here...see what you think. It does have the broken circular ring and the little frying pan handle:



BTW - I have a brand new NOS cylinder that I just remembered. I looked a minute ago and it is very likely that is the part.

Ya had me believing that was the piece, until I loosened up the housing and tried to get it out. The frying pan handle turned into a good size plate.



I'm thinking it's part of the housing. I also think it is around the steering shaft. I'm thinking of pulling the housing off but even then I don't know if I can do anything to fix it.
I"m getting in pretty deep.
Might be time to look for another column, Automatic column, this has been converted to auto and has a floor shift.

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DanMcG said:

Ya had me believing that was the piece, until I loosened up the housing and tried to get it out. The frying pan handle turned into a good size plate.

You must be registered for see images

I'm thinking it's part of the housing. I also think it is around the steering shaft. I'm thinking of pulling the housing off but even then I don't know if I can do anything to fix it.
I"m getting in pretty deep.
Might be time to look for another column, Automatic column, this has been converted to auto and has a floor shift.

Click to expand...

``Check the classified section in a few minutes - I'll post a real nice one that I don't need. And I won't ask for your firstborn in return.

Just remembered you're working on a 1977. I'm not sure if the one I have would be of any use to you. Too bad, it is from a 1987 and is essentially NOS. The cab it was pulled from only had like 625 miles on it when it got totaled. Then it spent the next 25 years sitting in a barn in Rhode Island until I bought it.

Thanks chengny, I couldn't have justified spending that kind of money on a 1000 plow truck, but I did consider it.

Update; here's what I was looking at.
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It looks like this should go on the end of the tube. but if that was the case there's no way it could escape the 4 screws that hold the housing to the shaft tube. so I'm guessing the four tabs locked in to the slots at the base of the screw holes but for the life of me I can't see how it went together, or came apart for that matter.
I don't really see what it's value is so I might leave it out, I'd love some input from anyone or even a pic of what it should look like .

I swear, I just saw that part in another forum. Give me a minute....here, got it.

The back story:

Here is the lower housing bolting plate. As a side note, my theory as to why the four bolts work lose and cause the "wobbly column" pattern failure so common with GM tilt columns is that the cross-sectional area of the tube that the bolting plate bears against is too small, resulting in the thin column tube edges deforming over time. This releases the tension that holds the bolts in place and once that occurs they rapidly back out under the various cyclic loads to which the steering column is subjected. You can see how little contact area there is as evidenced by the four narrow shiny spots around the edges:







You can see that the bolt spacing is wider at the top than at the bottom. Install the bolting plate by inserting it into the tube sideways, tilting the right side tab into the large slot, then bringing the plate up flat and inserting the two small tabs on the left into their corresponding slots in the tube wall:







One of the best tutorials I've ever seen. Unfortunately, it's for a tilt column with manual transmission.

Link:

http://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/088020-3.html

Wow, Thanks that was a big help. My bolting plate isn't threaded like the one in the tutorial so it must be used to just reinforce the tube.
I appreciate all the help.