72and86

Im restoring this 77 Vette and I'm getting down to the little stuff. On the steering column left side I see this hole. I assumed it was the tilt level that goes here.
Wrong.
I ordered a tilt lever and its got threads on the end. The lever's end is male and in this area on the column the nub (in the steering column) appears to be male too. Whaaat?
After really close inspection it looks like the nub sticking out of the column might have tiny splines on it, or it's own threads.

I the car appears to have tele (and tilt) and forward of the area in question is a working wiper lever...

Im at a loss what goes here. Any ideas?

Mooser

I'll vote for it's what's left of the original tilt lever which broke off leavine that piece your seeing. The splines were what was molded inside the plastic of the lever to hold it together....
Maybe
M

Mooser

Quick look seems that the arm wasn't plastic so I'll say the spline was pressed into the hollow end of the lever
M

doorgunner

Maybe that "nub" can be unscrewed with needle-nose pliers.....then you will have a threaded hole to work with.

72and86

Tried it with mini-vice grips and no-go. I also didn't want to force it incase it belongs there...

doorgunner

I completely understand! I recently purchased an "A.I.M." manual which has spared me from some "grief/wasted money" while trying to rebuild my basket-case '68/'78 "wouldn't-have-it-any-other-way-dream-car"!

persuader

Looks to me like someone broke off the tilt lever into the column. I have a 77 too and the tilt lever is threaded on the end and it just screws in. Right below it on the left hand side should be your wiper switch.
It should not be so difficult to grab the protruding piece and spin it counterclockwise unless it has been cross threaded. Or someone stuck something in there in place of the correct lever and it just broke off. I would just carefully spray some liquid wrench on it and keep trying to spin it off with a pair of vice grips. Because if that doesn't work you may have to do some disassembly to remove it.

kortensi

I bought a 77 column and put it in my 71.
I completely disassembled and rebuilt it.

Maybe these pics will help.

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...1-pics-18.html

I have more than I posted if you need them, just let me know.

KO

72and86

Great thread.
I tried to look close at the area in question but didn't see a good shot. It looks like maybe on my column a cruise control lever goes there. I don't know.
if the cruise control lever is removed, what is left behind? ****? Nub, hole?

persuader

What you are seeing in the picture of your first post is the tilt steering lever. The tilt column lever simply screws on to that. Now if you have cruise control the the tilt lever has a switch on the end of it with a small harness attached to it. It also just screws in like the plain tilt lever does.
So weather you have cruise control or not, both levers screw in the same way.

The pencil is pointed at the tilt lever of the column. This is what you are seeing in your picture.

72and86

perfect! So something is already in the hole on mine and its threaded? I need to back it out. I did try some tiny vice-grips but they kept slipping

72and86

Ok thats what I needed to know. It turns out the small splined piece in the column hole had a small threaded end on it too. So based on your "hole" pic I tried backing it out (instead of pulling it) with needle nose pliers. To my joy it came out and my new tilt level went in and the tilt column even works as a bonus!
Thanks everyone!