How to fix loose gm steering column

[Raider L]

bucket,

You may be right due to the fact that this column is shared with Mopar cars as well, and Jeeps to.

But the whole time I had this gate in my truck it never felt like it was in the gear like it should be. There could be all kinds of things wrong with my shifting, like the linkage down there could have been worn out and all kinds of things like that. But you get the picture. The fact remains though, it never did feel like it was all the way in the gear it was supposed to be in. It always felt like it was only part way in gear. I didn't have any problems with the trans slipping out of gear or anything, or missing gears or anything, it just never felt right, it wasn't a solid shift. It felt like it was only part way in gear but just enough to be in gear but just not a solid shift. It felt off somehow.

And I was never told it was the "same" as the one that came out of my truck. They said it was "close" to mine. Well that tells me it wasn't the same because it was for a car, not a truck, and my year truck. If there is any difference.

 

[bucket]

bucket,

You may be right due to the fact that this column is shared with Mopar cars as well, and Jeeps to.

But the whole time I had this gate in my truck it never felt like it was in the gear like it should be. There could be all kinds of things wrong with my shifting, like the linkage down there could have been worn out and all kinds of things like that. But you get the picture. The fact remains though, it never did feel like it was all the way in the gear it was supposed to be in. It always felt like it was only part way in gear. I didn't have any problems with the trans slipping out of gear or anything, or missing gears or anything, it just never felt right, it wasn't a solid shift. It felt like it was only part way in gear but just enough to be in gear but just not a solid shift. It felt off somehow.

And I was never told it was the "same" as the one that came out of my truck. They said it was "close" to mine. Well that tells me it wasn't the same because it was for a car, not a truck, and my year truck. If there is any difference.

There is an adjustment on the linkage that must be set up properly. If it's off to much, the bumps in the shifter detent won't jive too well with the detents in the shift arm on the trans.

 

[bucket]

I like to adjust the linkage with the trans and lever in the neutral position. I don't know if that's correct, but it has always worked well for me.

 

[AuroraGirl]

How do you remove the plastic to reveal the gate? I can show and use a caliper to get measurements if youd like verification

 

[Raider L]

Auroragirl,

Plastic? The shift gate I'm referring to is on the side of the lower bearing support, or maybe I'm not talking about what you are talking about. If you can take your column apart enough to get to that rear bearing support just take a good photo of the pattern of the gate and I can figure it out from there I think.

 

[Raider L]

bucket,

Yeah, I think neutral is the right position to set things up from. At least in neutral you have gears to the left and right of neutral. I think not in park because you've got no place to go if things aren't lined up. I don't know if that's the right thinking on the matter but that's the best I've got without having something else to go on. I'll look in my factory manual later and see if it says something about it.

It's like setting up the neutral safety switch, you put it in neutral and put the drill in the hole to make sure it's set correct where you screw the screws in to hold the switch. Then you go to Park to break the plastic pin and all.

The book does cover the linkage going to the trans from the column so it might be in that section.

 

[AuroraGirl]

Auroragirl,

Plastic? The shift gate I'm referring to is on the side of the lower bearing support, or maybe I'm not talking about what you are talking about. If you can take your column apart enough to get to that rear bearing support just take a good photo of the pattern of the gate and I can figure it out from there I think.

im not exactly gonna tearthe column apart because we are in the negatives for a week or so, but if its visible with out that or on the column tell me where. idk what a rear bearing support is or where it is visually. engine bay side?

 

[Raider L]

Auroragirl,

Yeah, I don't want you to go to any big trouble with this. I just thought if you had a column laying around that was a tilt column maybe you could take it down to that part, unfortunately it would be tearing the column down nearly, nearly completely to get to it.

The front bearing support is the par, in a tilt column that the key goes into and all that mechanism. Not the housing that surrounds it, that's the part that has the turn signal lever, and the tilt lever sticking out of it, but the inside part, the part that has the gear that turns when you turn the key. I'm just trying to describe the parts that will lead you to the rear bearing support.

Now, behind that part, the whole piece that has the tilt mechanism in it and all so you can see what I'm talking about is the part that has the shift gate on it.

Now, we go to the housing part that has the rear bearing support in it. This is the part that the shift lever sticks out of. The shift lever can be removed by pressing out the pin that holds it in the rear housing. Once you do that look inside and you will see a knotched plate the tip of the shift lever sticks into. That is the shift gate. It is attached on the rear bearing support. But to get to it you must first remove the front bearing support and it's a pain in the butt.

You must take the three screws out of the turn signal assembly and pull that whole thing off the short shaft. You won't remove it completely because the turn signal wires are attached to it, but get it out over the short shaft the best you can so you can get to the screws that hold the front housing off. It's the piece that the signal levers and the tilt lever go into.There are three screws that hold the front housing on, remove those screws and the front housing should slip off the front bearing support. Just let it hang there with the signal assembly.

On the front of the front bearing support, the part that has the key mechanism and all in it, look at the lower left on that piece and you will see a thing that's about the size of a nickle with a square hole in it. Take a no. 1 phillips screw driver and put the tip of it into that square hole and with some force press in on it and turn counter clockwise and the force of the big spring behind it will push that part you have the screw driver in, out of the hole the spring is in. Remove that spring and the thing you had the screw driver in, is a "cap" over the end of the spring.

Now, comes the fun part and that is removing the two pins on each side of the front bearing support. They are identified by the 10-32 screw holes in the middle of them. You screw 10-32 screws into the holes and pull the pins out. You can rig a puller by stacking a couple of big nuts with a 10-32 washer on top behind the head of the 10-32 screw or you can buy the puller to remove these two pins. These two pins hold the front and rear bearing supports together.


Next put the tilt lever back in by just screwing it into the arm it goes to. Since you have removed the spring that puts force in the tilt movement, you'll have to raise the front bearing support yourself. Take hold of the short shaft and at the same time pulling the lever back as if you are tilting the column up tilt it all the way up. With some jiggling you are trying to get those "fingers" inside the front bearing support to release it from the rear bearing support. Just keep the tilt lever pulled back and keep the short shaft raised up and with some effort the front bearing support will come free of the rear bearing support. Once apart you'll see how these two parts hold together and how the tilt works. To put these two parts back together you'll have to go through the same process by pushing the front bearing support into the rear bearing support and when they click together it should be together tightly like it was before you took it apart.

Now you can see the light colored cast piece, that is the rear bearing support. Refer back to my photos and the shift gate is on the lower side of it in line with where the shift lever would be.

Take a couple of photos of the shift gate and send them to this post.
Good Luck!

 

[Raider L]

Auroragirl,

I took pics of the two bearing supports with the shift gate on the rear bearing support so you can see how they go together and where the gate is located.

The first is the two bearing supports together in their proper relation to each other. And the second is the small aluminum colored rear bearing support with the gate on it.

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[Raider L]

Auroragirl,

Please don't be offended if I presumed you didn't already know all about these parts. You are a hell of a lot more instructed on this stuff more than I am, I'll guarantee you that! So if I come off sounding like mr. know it all, I sincerely apologize. I don't mean to do that, it's my military training when it comes to teaching people about stuff. I always start from a point where the information would be understandable by most anyone. In the military you never know what people know. You have to presume they know nothing and you teach from that point. I found that if a man knows he will do better than most others. It's not that he will stand up and say, "Hey, I already know all that!"

I've had people in the past be very offended that I treated them like they were ignorant. No, it's not that at all. And I try to make what I'm telling about as plain, clear, and understandable as I can.

When I had a company I was producing products to go on high performance engines of my invention. I included an instruction sheet and thought it would be simple to tell people how to put the part on their engine. Boy, was I wrong. Try to tell someone how to look where you want them to look and tell them about the part and now, where to put it and how to know if they are doing it right. If you've never done it try it, it's a lot harder than it first seems. You're not .

 

[Raider L]

I don't know what I started to say at the end there....disregard.

 

[Chevyguy]

I don't know what I started to say at the end there....disregard.

I know what you were saying. If you do it the way you say to do it odd's are it will operate perfectly and there will be no problems. That's how I teach too.

Clayton

Sent from my SM-A705U using Tapatalk

 

[Raider L]

If you look at the exploded view of the GM tilt column from my series of years, I don't know what that is, maybe '73-'77?? the group of columns that don't have the "box" on the left side of the upper housing that has the turn signal lever that performs all the other things like windshield wiper with delay, head lights with high beam-low beam control, and all that, it's like in a box on the side of the column; mine is the earlier version that doesn't have the box. My turn signal lever just controls the turn signals. Anyway if you look at the exploded view of my style column go to #16. The thing is called a "tilt lever opening shield". Mine did not have that in it when I took it apart this time. Boy, I sure would like to find that!! Is it necessary? Probably not. Will the tilt work fine without it? Yeah, probably. So why have it? Just like ya'll I want everything that came with it from the factory when it was new in 1974.

When I rebuilt my truck I kept things like the shift on the column instead of putting in a floor shift like some race truck. I kept telling the guys who were helping me, they were all real street racers with trailered cars with 800 hp engines in them and race for a thousand dollars and ****. But being car guys like me and can't leave anything alone, they would say things that reflect their racing mindedness that I had to resist because I wanted my truck to be part race and part stock with the blend almost undetectable in a lot of places. Like I kept the bench seat instead of putting in bucket seats for the floor shift. No, I wanted to keep those kinds of things stock.

This little piece is one of those things. Will anyone ever see it? No, not unless someone had to disassemble my column and found it where it's supposed to be. Stock.

 

[Knight84]

Thanks to you fellas and this thread, I got my tilt pulled down, lock tighted up, and back together. All switches work, key lock works. All good and no wobbles. Thanks loads for the guidance.

 

[Darstrom]

So after too long of a downtime I finally got around to tare it all down to this..
Anyone ever had this problem?
I hope some welding will do the trick and I can get her started once again!

You must be registered for see images attach