Gale Banks 80'

Hello, for those of You who have had the Tilt Telescopic Column apart I have a Question. My Tilt Wheel has some movement up and down but not side to side. From what I have read the 4 Bolts down in the Bottom should be loose and need Locktite. I have been using Jim Shea's instructions. I'm at about step 5 in the Drawings. Its a bit confusing since He keeps referring to parts in the Drawings having Numbers yet the Drawings have no numbers for parts. So I am far enough along that I can see one of what I think is one of the 4 Loose Bolts. Its head looks to be a reverse Torx. ( 1980 ) So far I have found nothing wrong and the one Bolt I can see is not loose. The Bearings including the bottom one all look good. I'm the original owner and this is the original Column. I think I'm at a Point where I might just put it back together.
Is there a way for the joint where the Column slips into the Tube that holds the lower bearing to be loose? Wile the Column was bolted in tight in the car is was easy to move the wheel up and down. But once I had Column out on my Bench I couldn't detect any movement.

Gale Banks 80'

I see that the Vendors now offer reconditioned Steering Wheels for considerably less than what they were a decade ago and supposedly they are done here in the USA. Anybody using one what do You think ? We all know that the majority of Aftermarket Steering Wheels are junk. What about a Momo or some of the other better brands who is using one of them ?

bmans vette

Contact Jim Shea directly.....super nice guy.
He is over on Digital Corvettes site.

Gale Banks 80'

Digital doesn't like me they won't let me register. Does anybody have a picture or knowledge on how the Dimmer Switch works ? I have scoured the internet and I can get a pre 77 picture all day long but not the late (1980) Column. I took pictures when I disassembled it I know where the Part goe's just not how it goe's. Its a black plastic part that the turn signal stalk pushes down to dim the lights.

bmans vette

Try Jim's website......

http://jimshea.corvettefaq.com/

Neil B

I just went through this on my '69 tilt/tele column. I had up/down looseness but not side to side. The 4 bolts were tight and the pivot pins still had a press fit. My problem ended up being loose lock shoe pins. The lock shoe pin bores in the lower knuckle were all mangled from years of people leaning on the wheel to get out of the car. I bit the bullet and replaced the lower knuckle with an NOS piece.

Gale Banks 80'

I got this. Its amazing what walking away and getting some sleep can do. In 5 minutes I figured out what Hours couldn't do before. Its all back together.

Gale Banks 80'

So now that I have to Column back in I'm back to having Play in it. The Play is coming from the Joint where the Column slips over the Tube that's bolted to the Firewall. Its as if I'm missing a Bushing that is supposed to be there. But the Drawings I'm looking at don't show one. I'd say there is about 1/8" difference between the two Tubes, which makes for probably 1" at the Wheel. Once again I am the original owner, and all these parts are the ones that came from the factory. I'm going to machine a bushing to fill the gap, but I don't understand why I need to.

Neil B

The only thing that locates the steering shaft inside the column at the firewall is the lower bearing assembly. There are 2 upper bearings in the upper tilt housing. The only things that can cause play are the bearings, lower knuckle bolts, pivot pins, and lock shoes.

Gale Banks 80'

Problem Solved. Made a Bushing to fit between the two Tubes. After 36 Years of ownership with wobbly Wheel it is now ridged. Now what little movement there still is is in the Tilt, maybe 1/4" at most at the Wheel. I made the Bushing about .1400 leaving .010 clearance both inner and outer diameters. I see no reason that the Column shouldn't still Crush in a head on Collision. This means I took over 1/4" slop out of the middle of the Column. This a Motorsports Mod, I doubt that its worth the time on a Street Car. Last week when I had the car aligned the Tech drove it a came back saying that I need to do something about the loose Column. Having driven the Car very little in the last 20 Years I can also say that it sure felt sloppy but I just had to remind myself that's just the way these cars were.

GUSTO14

To answer your question on steering wheels, I have used Personal or Nardi steering wheels on a number of cars over the past 30+ years. They tend to be very high quality and mostly made in Italy. I started in the late 70's looking for a smaller diameter, leather wrapped wheel for a BOSS 302 I had. I found the Personal wheel suited me just perfectly. They sold the required adapter as well.
http://www.nardi-personal.com/person...id=288&lang=en

I sold the car later with the original wheel and bought a different adapter to install it on my '73 Corvette. I also have a beautiful Nardi hardwood wheel a ran across at a swap meet that fits it as well.

I believe that somewhere in time Personal and Nardi may have merged, although they still offer both brands. The Personal wheels seem to be a bit more traditional while the Nardi's are more modern. My experience with MOMO wheels is similar. They all tend to be very high quality and use a pretty standard bolt pattern. Similar, but not identical to the Corvette pattern.

The advent of air-bags has changed the market somewhat, especially for high end wheels like the MOMO, Personal and Nardi. It seems that there was room in the market years ago for a wide variety of aftermarket wheels, from less expensive Grant models to the higher end wheels. However accommodating air-bags and frankly the much improved quality of OEM wheels has challenged the aftermarket significantly.

Good luck... GUSTO

mrvette

When buying my '72 vert, the old fixed bus driver wheel assy was a PIA to deal with, so a late shark wheel immediately, made it about 1/2 way livable.....6'5" here legs still on the wheel....bought a late TT shark column for just TEN BUX at that price I didn't CARE about condition....I tore it down and found basically little to nothing rong replaced a couple uneventful items....this all in late '95-early 96 it's been in and out a few times and I have tried to find that vertical looseness and never got lucky, it's not the infamous 4 bolts, and like yours it's tight laterally....

it has been through a LOT, largest gig was the rack install winter 01-02 and the cutting of the firewall away from the floor, across and up to the column height, swung the firewall forward about 3 inches, pushing the pedals forward also, so my legs are off the wheel now, and seating is far superior now......dropped the seat back down on the mounting clips also....

SO thanks for the information, not that I in a hell of a rush to fix it NOW.....