I have read dozens of threads about this on the forum. What is the secret to installing the upper column assembly and not have this problem. I torqued the nut and when I turn the steering wheel in either direction it squeaks. I sound like the metal is rubbing on the plastic of the cancelling cam. I have driven the car for two days, the first day the turn signal return work fine but the wheel squeaked. Today it still squeaks and the left only will cancel correctly.

Would a washer acting as a shim work on the back side of the hub?

If that won't work how about pulling the hub and replacing it but not tightening nut back to full torque to keep a wider gap between hub and turn signal metal hub assembly?

 

If I remember correctly, you are working on a 64?

Are you sure the cancel mechanism worked correctly for both left and right signal yesterday?

I ask because if the steering wheel hub is not indexed properly with the steering wheel, the canceling cam will not be properly oriented and the signal lever will only cancel in one direction, or not at all.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c1-a...-question.html

With my 65, someone had removed the steering wheel from the hub and repositioned it incorrectly, so after I installed a new cancelling cam and put the wheel on with the wheel oriented "correctly" relative to the wheels, the canceling mechanism still didn't work. It wasn't until I saw the thread above did I learn the wheel and hub needed to be properly aligned to each other to ensure proper hub orientation with the signal mechanism.

As for the squeaking, are you sure it is the upper bearing, and not the horn contact rubbing on the bearing contact point?

If you are working on a 62 or earlier, then the canceling mechanism is 2 pins stuck in the back of the hub.

 

After I rebuilt the steering column and test drove the car on Thursday it cancelled in both directions but squeaked. Friday I had the front and rear alignment done and they locked the steering wheel in the straight position for that. I can't remember now if it started not cancelling on right turn after that or I just noticed it today.

I keep reading that I need to align the notches on the shaft with hub asm but I can't find any notch on the shaft it is so old and over time has been beaten up pretty bad. So when I assembled the column I made sure the wheels were straight and used the gear box and rag joint as my reference points so theorically I could be 180 out. But the cam did cancel in both direction like I said eariler.

 

Looking on the link at the picture of JohnZ's. My shaft does not have a notch and my horn button is at 5 o'clock and the two holes for pulling the hub are at 9 and 3. The picture of John's 67 looks nothing like my 64.

 

Sounds like your hub is on the shaft at the wrong orientation.

By the way, does your 64 have the standard, or telescoping wheel? That's a whole 'nother difference.

Assuming you have a standard column...

1. John's photo is I believe is intended to represent 63-66.
2. With the hub oriented properly the canceling cam will NOT be oriented in an intuitive way
3. With the hub oriented properly, your steering wheel may need to be removed and reinstalled on the hub in order to get the wheel to look right. Whomever installed my 65 hub in the past, did to mine what it sounds like was done to yours - they oriented the 2 hub removal locations to the 9 and 3 spot, probably because it "looked right". Then they installed the wheel on the hub with the wheel in the "straight ahead" position. I had to remove my hub/wheel, disassemble, install the hub properly and then install the wheel.5
4. Take a look at page 10 of DZVette's article http://www.lbfun.com/warehouse/tech_...Components.pdf that shows the canceling cam. You can use the horn contact on the front/rear of the hub, along with the other photos, to visualize where the cam should be when the hub is installed correctly. Although even DZVette's horn contact is in a different place than in JohnZ's photo. DZVette has a 65.

I don't know if any of the above is helpful, but it's about the best I can offer I'm afraid.

 

Take a Feeler Gauge and place it between the Steering Wheel and the Hub. Slide it all the way around to make sure your not Hearing the Rubbing between these items. Al W.

 

I will take the wheel and hub off tomorrow and see if I can make any sense out of the hub positioning vs the cancelling cam. If I can't figure this relationship out I may have to buy a new shaft just so I can have something to align the hub with.

Like you I am confused why John's 67 horn button is oriented differently than the 65. I would think they would all be the same. I was going to using John pic as my alignment guide.

 

Actually, the shaft really is insignificant. What matters is the mark on the hub (do you have that mark) is straight up at 12 when the wheels are straight. This orients the canceling cam.

If you need me to, I can remove my horn button and horn contact from my 65 and photograph the hub orientation with the wheels straight.

Edit: Ok, I did it anyway. I removed the horn button/horn contact, and with the wheels straight, you have the photo below. My steering column shaft no longer has a locating mark on it either. The mark on the hub is obscured by the flat washer/nut.



Jeff

 

Thanks I will let you know tomorrow when I tear into the hub. I did just run a feeler gauge around the hub and it is rubbing from 8 to 11 o'clock position. So tomorrow if the hub is orientated correctly I will be sure to leave more gap between the hub and signal light housing.

 

After looking at my 65, and DZVette's 65, I think the photo John posted may be a mirror of what he originally photographed. But notice also that his steering shaft is different than mine or DZVette's. Ours are solid on the end, his is concave in the center so who knows, maybe that's a 67 wheel/shaft.

 

I pulled the steering hub today and you were right it was not orientated with the notch at 12:00. So I did that with the wheels straight and the turn signals started cancelling both left and right. I moved the steering wheel and it didn't squeak so I reinstalled everything. Well I decided to take a drive and see for sure and once I turn the steering wheel past 10:00 or 2:00 postion it sounds like a rusty hinge squeaking. I torqued the steering wheel bolt back at the low end. I think I might know the problem I had all the column parts powder coated including the hub and turn asm. Do you think this could be the clearance problem? I have had other clearance problems during assembly because of the powder coating.

 

That's great!

It's certainly possible. Does the hub still rub the signal housing as it did the other day? The feeler gauge recommendation 67vetteal was an excellent one.

 

I found the squeaking source. It is the nylon canceller cam rubbing against the top inside of the upper bearing. I put some grease on the nylon and on the upper bearing asm and it appears to have stopped. I am wondering should the nylon even be touching the top of the bearing? It is the nylon part of the canceller that slides over the steel column shaft. If it shouldn't touch I can shave some off of it.

 

I filed the sharp ridge off of the nylon that is against the upper bearing and regreased it. I put it all back together and drove the car for about 10 miles and it is still squeaking a little but not nearly as bad as before. I think it is the cheap nylon cam because the old one appears much better made. If the squeaking gets worse I am going to put the old cam back on. I must have taken the hub off 10 times over the past couple of days.

 

My '64 squeeks too and the turn indicators would not cancel.

I had Steve LuVise (of Overhaulin' fame) redo it and he found that the center shaft had been used as a baseball bat (i.e., was full of dents and dings). Steve is among the most knowledgable C1-C2-C3-C4 mechanics in CA and there are plenty on this forum who will ONLY use his services, so I know it was done right.

He replaced the shaft, put in new innards, and it still squeeks. But everything works right. I think it is a characteristic of the beast.

 

I replaced everything in the column except the shaft and it squeaks. Before with old parts it didn't squeak. I just drove it again for about 20 miles and the squeak is almost gone. I think the new canceller rubbing on the upper bearing will eventually take care of the rest of the noise.

I have noticed a new noise. You know when you turn the signal lever and the cam cancels the lever back to the neutral position you get a unquie noise. Well now I get that noise like the cam is pushing back the lever even if I don't turn the signal on. Looking at the cam it doesn't look like it could be possible of the cam hitting anything in the neutral position. I may pull the hub one more time to see what gives. This is a new noise. Good thing I don't have anything better to do.

 

My squeek comes and goes.

 

Mine seems to happen if I'm exerting any downward pressure on the wheel...if I'm resting my arm on it or something like that. It does move a little bit, I'm going to check the hub nut and make sure its on there tight.

 

I think my problem was the aftermarket canceller cam. It was rubbing against the top of the upper bearing asm. I greased the area up good and filed the sharp edge off of the cam and 99% of the squeaking has gone. But you are right if I push down on the steering wheel very hard it will squeak more which makes sense since that would be pushing the cam down on the metal of the upper bearing.

 

I'm very interested in this thread as I'm in the middle of replacing the cancelling cam too.
I would not file too much off the tapered edge of the cam as that is what puts pressure into the upper bearing to keep the shaft (and therefore steering wheel) from moving up and down and sideways some, like mine. The hub and steering wheel assembly feels loose and I figured the old cam is so worn that it isn't putting enough pressure on the bearing to keep it in place nice and tight so I bought a new cam after trying placing a thin shim under it to no avail.
It was driving me nuts that the steering wheel was never straight ahead with the wheels were whenever I would match the hub mark with the shaft mark as I read somewhere to do. But now I see that the orientation of the shaft notch (which luckily Jeff said is not significant), does not have to match up with the hub notch.
I placed the old cam by itself in there and it cancels two different ways: inserted inside the semicircle of the switch and opposite that on the right side. By putting the hub on with the notch at 12:00, the canceling cam sits on the right side of the hub and the wheel is on straight! The holes are at 11 & 5, and the brush is at 1. Yay!