Joined: Sun Jan 04 2009, 02:51AM
Location: Washington
Posts: 44
I picked up a floor shift tilt-tele column that's partially disassembled, does anybody have any schematics or manual info on how to piece these back together?
The guy pulled the steering wheel off and couldn't figure out how to get the thing back together. I spent sometime trying to put the puzzle together and couldn't figure it out. I really don't want to take my current column apart to see how it works.
I have a basic understanding on dealing with the wheel etc, but not so much with the inner workings although I know a bit.
The column is a Saginaw (GM) sourced unit. The one in your pictures is the 67/68 collapsible column version, so there are some differences with the turn signal stuff as opposed to the '66 one.
I am not sure if all the collapsible stuff is in place properly on your column, as I have no experience wth a 67... hopefully the black covers I see are self explanatory.
The steering wheel telescope clutch dial and hub cover stuff have to be off the wheel assembly to reinstall the wheel on the column.
The wheel bolts to a1" thick telescoping shaft (knurled and threaded) at the top of the column with a big nut. The shaft and wheel have a keyway as well. There is a square edge rubber O ring that softens the bump when pushing the wheel all the way in. It needs to be on the shaft before the wheel is in place.
Important: Inside that telescoping shaft is a thin narrow rod that "hides" inside the 1" thick shaft. The shaft is also threaded inside. That rod must be there so that the central bolt (with the wide head and the many holes that the telescope control wheel hub dial is bolted to) can screw in and push against that rod to activate the telescope clutch and lock it in place. No rod and the wheel can't lock in place.
The ring with two bolts is used to hold the centre hub cover and medallion.
So - order of reassembly:
1) Check that the lock rod is in the telescoping shaft.
2) Check that the rubber O ring is in place
3) Take the wheel and hook up the horn wires to the column connector. Allign the keyways in the wheel and shaft and lightly press the wheel on the shaft. Then put the big nut on and carefully seat the wheel.
4) Place the central hub dial on the wheel, and then take the centre bolt (lots of holes) and start to wind it into the shaft. Don't bolt it to the hub ring yet. Once the bolt winds in and you start to feel it bottoming out, stop. Don't wind it in hard yet. Allign the three bolt holes in the hub dial with the holes in the bolt and use the three little machine screws to join the hub dial and the centre bolt. It will take some finagling to find three holes that line up, but they will! There are raised ribs on the outer side of the hub ring. Try to get the hub ring bolted to the centre bolt so that the rib lines up just on the left side of the "unlocked" side so that turning the hub dial to the right locks the wheel in place and the rib is pretty much centred or slightly rightward between "locked" and "unlocked".
5) Install the hub cover ring with its' two machine screws, and snap the hub cover in place - you'll see the hub cover only goes on two ways (look at the tabs on the back) right side up or 180 degrees out!
With regards to the tilt mechanism, they're a bugger and best left alone if possible.
Joined: Sun Jan 04 2009, 02:51AM
Location: Washington
Posts: 44
That's the best info I've found anywhere so far... Thank you. Can you take a look at these pics?
I'm not 100% sure on what goes where, here's what it looks like. The telescoping center piece is intact and I had the wheel and center piece kinda set in place to see if the tele clutch portion was working and it appears to be. I'm good with assembling the parts to steering wheel, but I have other parts/pieces that I'm told came out of this column, I just can't figure out where and how they fit. There is the large metal star wheel, an oblong plastic piece, a small spring, the round metal spacer... (The steering wheel spring and pieces aren't shown.
Hmmm... and delving past the telescope mechanism is exactly where things become a bit of a mystery to me too.
What it looks like is the first two pictures show that the rubber O ring is there on the tele shaft. Good.
If the clutch is working, then the rod is still hiding inside the telescoping shaft. Gooder!
Please keep in mind that this particular answer (and the previous one) are done from memory, so if I make an error, please forgive me!
The white plastic part held in your hand in the 2nd pic looks to be the horn contact ring. The black horn wires from the column should connect to that, it should sit in the top of the column, and then there's a similar piece in your third pic that sits inside the steering wheel underneath the collar with the spring, and that makes constant contact with the bigger ring. The circuit is completed when the horn buttons are depressed. However, I am only going from memory.
I should be able to clarify tomorrow when I look at the one I have currently disassembled on my bench. Good timing eh?
I see the big nut for the steering wheel, and a couple of snap rings that look vaguely familiar. The telescope mechanism is held in place by snap rings, and I can't remember what else. There are return springs in there as well that hold the wheel up when you release the tilt lever setting... all of that is in front of the tilt knuckle assemble, and the whole shebang is a real bugger to deal with from what I've been able to learn.
The other parts look suspiciously like they may be from something else. I do have a GM exploded diagram of a tilt only column, but it's not really very much help... but I can tell you that the tilt position rachet gears (called lock shoes) do not look anything like those big toothy wheels in your 3rd photo. However, that doesn't mean they're NOT supposed to be in there too, I just have never seen anything that looks like that when I have delved carefully into my tilt tele columns.
The cover for the telescope part (where the turn signal and tilt levers come out) is a press fit, and was an absolute bear to remove from one of the columns I played around with. I needed to make a special pulling tool, and even then I wound up bending the upper lip and had to reshape it as best I could.
The best thing is to assemble the wheel etc, and see if the tilt function works. If it does, then don't worry about it. Same with the telescope function.
Be careful about putting ANY downward pressure on the column shaft - there are internal spacers and bearings that are lablelled collapsible in the drawing, as well as the whole collapsible section. Murphy's Law states quite clearly that they WILL will collapse, and then of course, the whole thing is ruined.
I have taken the liberty of posting the images and info I have on the TILT ONLY column. The tilt guts are apparently IDENTICAL, it's just the telescoping stuff in front. I hope the files are readable, if not, PM me and I'll send it to you via email.
One of the white plastic horn contact rings is held into the steering wheel and connects to the wires for the horn buttons in the spokes. Although I can't see for sure, I presume it has two wire connection tabs on it. Then there is a big captive brass spring in the wheel hub as well. See pic below:
The other white plastic ring is retained in the top of the column by a thick dark coloured snap ring and connects to the black horn wire in the column. The 3 brass tangs face up to make contact with the brass spring in the wheel hub. It should only have one wire tab. See pic below:
Joined: Sun Jan 04 2009, 02:51AM
Location: Washington
Posts: 44
Awesome, those pics help narrow this box of parts down. I'm guessing someone added some GM pieces to the mix that clearly don't belong with this column. After looking at it I can say for certain it's missing about 7 screws (the turn signal switch screws and the telescopic trim cover that attaches to the steering wheel. Once I replace those I'm going to reassemble this and make sure it's all good before tearing it back down for paint. I've read there were replacement cancel cams for these being made at one time, do you have any experience with those ?
Fortunately my cancel cams are good, plus the switch is markedly different than yours, as mine uses a cable and the switch is down at the bottom of the column. Yours has the wiring run up the column all the way to the switch.
She-Mar may make a replacement. Try them - the guy who runs that company is a good guy. Talk to him as if it's GM column.
Joined: Sun Jan 04 2009, 02:51AM
Location: Washington
Posts: 44
I Think I made a mistake and I'm not sure how to correct it. I wasn't thinking and got ahead of myself and screwed the lock ring into the shaft without the steering wheel, I pretty sure I screwed it in farther than I should have and now I cannot get the tele portion to unlock and pull out.
I tried using the steering wheel as leverage to turn the shaft with the end of the column in a vise and it's locked tight, I cannot figure out how to unlock or release the clutch when the only way to activate it is by the rod inside the column.
Shitty deal is that it was moving in and out and I had it working before I did what I did.
I assume you're speaking of not being able to get the hub screw (the one with lots of holes around the edge that the hub ring bolts to) to unscrew from the telescoping shaft, and because it's doing it's job, the whole thing is locked in tight. Keep trying - it will unscrew.
If I understand correctly, you say you tried using the steering wheel itself as leverage to pull the shaft out - bolted to the knurl. DON'T. If the clutch is activated, you will NOT be able to move it however hard you try. It's designed to withstand an accident. You'll likely collapse another bearing, spacer or whatever trying to do that.
With my hub screw (and I can see that yours is the same), there are two holes drilled in the center before the flange - a good pair of pliers opened up and stuck through the holes and you should be able to twist the screw out. I use a pair of good channel locks on the knurled end of the telescope shaft for leverage, but if you're worried about scarring the knurl, lock the bottom flange (for the rag joint) in a vice. If you want more leverage, try bolting the big chrome hub ring on upside down to the hub screw should provide more than enough leverage to start turning the hub screw out. Once it's out, if the shaft still won't move, then all I can figure is that the internal rod is stuck down and is doing it's job without being pushed by the hub screw. Hmmmm.... try shooting a pile of penetrating oil down the shaft centre bore - perhaps it will get in there and allow the rod to relax itself out since the hub screw is not pushing against it...
Joined: Sun Jan 04 2009, 02:51AM
Location: Washington
Posts: 44
I spent some time messing with this today and noticed something, the tele shaft isn't far enough out of the outer shaft to allow the steering wheel to seat. I compared a pic from when I first got it when the tele shaft would move in and out, in fact I was able to completely remove the inner tele shaft and got an idea of what the lock mechanism looks like. It went back in and functioned fine.
The first pic is from when I had it working, the second is how it is now. Take note of the amount of inner tele shaft that is exposed between the two. I soaked the inner rod and the inner tele shaft with liquid wrench. I made a tool that fit inside the slot that runs the length of the outer tele shaft and ran it until it stopped, thinking it would push on and disengage the lock, but that didn't seem to work.
I can't find any means of disassembling these columns any further; no screws, no bolts, no clips that I can get to. I tried to see how the turn signal switch comes out, I can't fit it through the end of the column.
I'm at a loss on how to break this down to figure out what's catching the tele shaft.