shift tube to long

[Raider L]

Tonight I was working on my column. I'm at the point where I need to stick the steering shaft in the column's shift tube so I can put the bearing supports together, and the little short shaft at the end where you put the steering wheel on has to be put on the end of the steering shaft. Okay, everybody got that picture?

So, I know it's time to insert the plastic bushing and ball bearing on the end of the mast tube near the shift arm the trans. shift linkage attaches to. There is a wire clip that holds a cover on the end of the mast tube down there where all that goes. Got that? So I get the ball bearing greased up and pop it into the plastic bushing. I get those squares around the sides of the bushing lined up with their corresponding knotches in the end of the mast tube down there, and slip the bushing in and push it on into the end of the mast tube where promptly the ball bearing falls out onto the floor!

This is just like having to cut the neutral safety switch opening up more because the mast tube is to far forward. There is something wrong with how all this lines up and I think I know what it is and that is the shifter housing is not the right one for my column. The cast part inside where the lock plate backs up to is off about a 1/4" or less. I had to open up the slot for the neutral switch tang and I bet I'm going to have to cut a little bit off the end of the shift tube end so the steering shaft bearing will fit in the plastic bushing.

What I hope is the steering shaft isn't off any. I don't know what that would be right now since everything is shifted slightly forward maybe the end of the shaft will be okay. We'll see.

 

[Raider L]

I was working on my column a little while ago and discovered what had happened to that end of the shift tube causing it to stick out to far, making it impossible to put the ball bearing in the plastic bushing at the end of the mast tube.

When I was taking the column apart I must have hit the shift lever or that end of the shift tube with a hammer a few times trying to get the ball bearing off the end of the steering shaft the first time. I did know about the two parts of the shift tube being together with a plastic sleeve between those two tubes as part of the collapse configuration.
When I had the column out, many years ago to repair the upper end of the mast tube that had broken off, the two tabs that hold the lock plate, I had those two tubes of the shift tube apart so I could clean the ends that go inside each other. Inside, where that plastic sleeve is are two small ball bearings, two on each side that sit in a short groove.
As you are pushing the two tubes together you have to be careful to not let those little ball bearings slide out of the grooves they sit in as you are pushing the tubes together. There were wear marks inside and that's all had to go by making sure I didn't go to far pushing them together. That was thirty years ago so I forgot about them although I was aware of the fact that those two tubes do slide back and forth. I guess I wasn't careful enough and the two tubes did move, about a 1/4" apart which made the shift tube a little to long, and was why I didn't have enough of the neutral switch tang slot not showing. The larger part of the shift tube had moved outward and I didn't know it. I cut that slot about an 1/8" larger. Now that I've tapped the larger end of the shift tube back, now I have all kinds of slot showing in that opening in the mast tube for the tang of the neutral switch to stick down into. I do remember before that there seemed to be nearly the whole slot, 1" long, in the shift tube showing in that opening down there in the mast tube, when I took the column out.

So I tapped on the end of the ball bearing as it was sitting inside the plastic bushing assembled like it should be with a soft hammer and a thin piece of wood, to protect the end of that thin shift tube until the plastic bushing moved back into the slots for the knotches on the plastic bushing to go into. This fixed it. Then I put the cover thing over the the end of the mast tube and put the wire clip on and the ball bearing was now flush with the end of that cap thing like it was supposed to be. And everything is back like it should be.

 

[Raider L]

Okay, I just put the column together to the point where I'm ready to put the turn signal wiring back in and put the turn signal in. The only thing I'm concerned about is looking at where the steering wheel lock pin sticks out up there in that front housing, it doesn't look like that part of the housing is back far enough for the locking plate to be ahead of the end of the pin. I'll have to get to where I'm putting that steering wheel locking plate on and see where the pin comes out, if the lock ring will go where it's supposed to, puts the plate far enough down in the housing to work. Otherwise I'll have to take the upper housing off and see if I can grind, the part of the housing where the lock pin comes out, down to make it work like it should. So far the problems I've had have not been because anything was wrong with the housings I bought. All the problems have been because I did something wrong or overlooked something.

The key mechanism went in fine, and in the lock position when I took the key out you couldn't turn the key mechanism, which is a good sign in that it is showing that the key mechanism works like it's supposed to. Also, it looked like the key mechanism was a little to far out of the housing hole. But, when I tried to turn the key with it sticking out a little like it was, I couldn't turn the key which is the way it's supposed to work. You have to push the key mechanism in until it bottoms out against the housing hole and then turn the key.