A customer brought over a tilt column from a 74 chevy van to be installed into his 55 Chev truck. No key on the column. Already had the top part off. I am looking at the blinker switch... OK, remove the 3 screws and............. The blinker switch barely comes out of the housing. The housing on this column is steel, not cast as on the other columns I have worked on..... Now the switch is out, and there are no screws to remove to take the housing (cover) off. How in the heck do I get this apart. It needs new bearings, and I probaby need to shorten it..... Help if you can.........
Kinda sounds like my 66 Olds tilt/tele column (no chance of getting the blinker switch out without removing the housing). The steel sheet housing is pressed on to the tilt casting. I used a rubber hammer to carefully rock it back and forth on the casting. After several taps, it worked its way off.
Wish I had pics of the inside of mine - yours looks similar. Being a tele, mine has an extra housing just behind the wheel to hide the guts when you pull it all the way out. Mine is shown in the picture tilted all the way up so you can see the bottom end of the steel housing. There is not a big parting line - mine was almost completely hidden by 5 coats of rustoleum. Lightly tap it at the top end to rock the steel back and forth off the tilt ball. I almost cried when I saw a tilt/tele column like mine at the junkyard in an Olds F-85. Some ham-fisted*****head removed the steel housing by tearing it in half with a pair of vise-grips. Yours might be different from mine, but it's worth a try IMHO.
The upper housing is a decorative steel sleeve that is lightly press fit over the tilt housing. To remove it you will need a small chisel or HAMB approved screw driver/prybar and a mallet to "tap" it off. Next underneath you will need an 8-32 screw to remove the two pins on the side, but before you do take a Philips screw driver and remove the counter ballance spring by pushing it in with the screw driver and giving it a quarter turn. With the spring removed put the screw in the side pin and and grab the screw with a pair of vise grips and "tap" each one out. That should get you apart, need to know anything else?
Auburn Wa. isn't that far from Portland if you want a real Pro to help you out. A friend named Terry Sorvik does nothing but rebuild and modify tilt columns. It's an evening and weekend thing and he is very cost effective. Over the years I've had him do at least 15 columns for me, not because I can't but he's cheep and good and I don't get all tweeked like you are. Plus when I get them back everything works. His ph# is 503-760-4593 and that's the best advice I can offer. The Wizzard
years ago i had a Camaro with a tilt colun that got kinda loose and wiggly. well i could'nt figure out how to get to all the screws to tighten them so i asked a greybeard friend of mine who has been buildin rods longer than i've been breathing. he said he once took one so far apart trying to get to those screws to tighten it up that he could'nt put it back together again. he just scooped it up and threw it away. not much help i know but could be a good argument for taking it to Pist-n-broke's "pro". the inside of a tilt column is like the inside of an auto trans to me. it's like some kinda VOODOO magic or somethin, not to messed with by us mere mortals.
Thanks for the help 40tudor. Just like yours...... Man, what a F****d up design...... I would never figured it out.... I shoulda posted here earlier, it would have saved me 1/2 a day.............. Thanks to all who responded......... My customer will be happy......
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