my whacked column rebuild

[Camar068]

send these folks an email. Thats where I got mine at for $32. They don't have any listed on their site, thats why say send email or call them.

https://www.steeringcolumnservices....ick-cadillac-chevrolet-oldsmobile-pontiac.php

 

[Raider L]

Camar068,

When I got a lower tilt housing from a site on Ebay it turned out to be plastic so I sent it back to the seller for a refund. I called Steering Column Services and they had a lower housing for my truck in metal, as a matter of fact they had it in three sizes. I measured mine and and ordered it from them.

 

[Raider L]

HotRodPC,

Don't forget Jeeps. But would they have four on the column in automatic?

 

[Raider L]

FIXED!

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[Raider L]

That screw hole that is in that tab is one I drilled when I had to rig it. Just ignore it. There's not supposed to be one there. Now I have to wait for my lower housing to come in so I can start putting the bearing supports together and start this column back together. I'll be posting pics as I go along. This end is where the locking plate goes and the lower bearing housing slips in the end of this tube.

 

[Raider L]

Here's that lower housing I got from Steering Column Services. Also I ordered the clip that goes at the end of the shift tube to hold the lower housing on. The ring clip on the left was what I found when I took my column apart. So I had to try and find a new one. Steering Services had one in a kit along with a new (used) lock plate and the thin washers. That's cool.

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[Raider L]

Today I addressed a potentially serious problem as you'll see. The years of having a broken shift tube retaining wire clip caused a groove to wear into the end of the shift tube. I decided to Braze that groove as well so that when I put the new wire clip in it won't slide into that groove and cause further wear possibly cutting through the end of the tube causing the lock plate to come off inside the column housing. That would be bad.

 

[Raider L]

Here's the end as it looked before I Brazed it up and afterwards. Sorry I didn't include what it looked like after I filed it down flush with the steel. But you can see how thin walled the shift tube is and how deep the worn groove was.

Then the photo of

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

what it looks like after the lock plate is put back on with the new wire clip in the slots

 

[Raider L]

Ignore that large hole in the cleat that goes into the guide slot in the lower outer housing, it's where I drilled the hole for the 3/8th's bolt to be able to shift the trans. after the truck got broke into. I know the holes in the lock plate aren't lining up, it's just because I don't have the column picked up and it's just sitting there. There was a guy last night that was talking about his column was loose beyond the four screws being loose. I told him that I felt his lock plate had come loose due to the end of the mast tube end being broken like mine was or it could be that wire clip has broken or come off the end of the shift tube.. I told him to take the whole column apart and repair it, don't waste the money by buying a whole new column when it just needs repairing.

 

[Raider L]

A couple of extra pics.

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[Raider L]

In the above two photos, it's a little blurred in the one of the tube, but even blurred you can see how deep the groove was on the other side of the tube. It was almost all the way through the tube. And a little further out so you can see how the wire clip fits. Also the parts of the wire clip that are in their slot, don't stick out through the slot on the inside. They just sit right in the slot holding the lock plate.

I know none of this is very interesting. It's details no one will probably care about seeing. It's either together or it's not who cares about why.

 

[Raider L]

Anyone can answer,

Today I discovered a possible problem. I was looking at the neutral safety switch slot down there in the shift tube where it goes. I noticed that there wasn't much slot for the tang of the switch that sticks down in that slot, showing.

The problem is I have no idea what it should be since after I had to "rig" the thing, and removed the lower housing and all, and the safety switch was working okay I didn't pay any attention to, nor did I ever need to look at it while the column was in the truck.

But now that it's out of the truck and I'm putting it back together how much of that slot in the shift tube is supposed to be showing in the opening for it down there in the mast tube? Now, I went and got the switch out of the truck and brought it out to the shop and put it on the mast tube where it goes so I could see whether it was going to fit back in it's place and work.

Well, it went on okay, and once the lower bearing support is attached pulling on the shift tube as much as it will it seemed okay, and it did slide back and forth okay, I guess. I would like to see a bit more of that slot showing down there, but does anyone have an example, like a column you can see, and measure what yours is and let me know, here?

 

[Raider L]

I took the column, what there was together, apart today in order to deal with that neutral safety switch slot in the shift tube. I needed about an 1/8th of an inch so I would be more comfortable with that opening for the tang to go into. So I put it in the vise and filed the opening up about an eighth of an inch, put the column back together and it looked much better now. Putting the switch in you can shine a bright flash light into the front and you can see the tang down in the slot

I know you can't tell if the slot is larger, but take it from me I enlarged it by an 1/8th of an inch. I put the neutral switch in, now it has more than enough room to slide. I just felt that after putting the rest of the column together if I lost any more opening at all I might not be able to get the tang in good, or it could come out somehow. Now it won't have anything happen to it and it will

You must be registered for see images attach

have plenty of room.

 

[Raider L]

I would figure that as long as the slot was enough to allow the tang to go in it would be alright. But how tight, or how slight of a slot is to slight. In this case I would think that more than enough space for the tang to stick into is not to much space. I would hate to have too little and assemble the column and then find out I didn't have enough.

Of course this is not a good example because my column was so whacked nothing was how it was supposed to be. But some times I would be turning to the right and the engine would just die, no, it would shut off like the power was cut off to the engine. This was in traffic! Cars would be coming, I would calmly stop, checking the rear view mirror to see how many micro seconds I had, put it in Park, the engine would start right up, I'd put it back in Drive and pull away as quickly as I could and resume driving. Now, this little quark would only happen every once in awhile but it was scary none the less.

It wasn't until it happened again, this last time thank God it was in my driveway on Nov. 14, 2020. How do I know so accurately? Because I had just come back from a doctor's appointment and had stopped kinda crooked in the drive. I tried to restart the engine to repark that's when it wouldn't start and I couldn't get it started. I spent quite a bit of money before I found out what it was. The neutral safety switch had come completely off of park, I don't know what gear it was in, and that was all it took. I decided to not fool around anymore and take the column out and rebuild it so I wouldn't have these kinds of problems anymore. Besides It needs to be driven around the shops I'm going to send it to get the stuff done it needs done to it to get it back to where it was before all these bad things happened to it over all these years past.

The rag joint will be replaced and several other things. I'm also putting in a Lokar shift rod to get rid of all that clunky linkage shifting the trans.

 

[Raider L]

Yippee! I got the last part in tonight. I got the upper housing I needed. It's the part that has the opening for the ignition key in it and the turn signal, and tilt levers on the other side. And it's metal not plastic like so many of these after market parts are for these columns these days. Also, I got the new rag joint and the new horn hardware a few days ago. Now all the stuff is new, except for the original parts I already had. Photos to follow.