Nowhere Man

I wont its his car he can do what he wants.

JohnZ

Yes, there is. The steering shaft (item 20) was manufactured at Saginaw Steering Gear as an assembly - the inner shaft and the outer shaft, with a telescoping double-"D" joint, with a hot-injected nylon pin filling the hole drilled through both shafts. This was the standard '67 GM column design, not just on Corvette.

Nowhere Man

So John would that compromise anything in the column if someone would hit the shaft to gain the clearance required for this aftermarket steering box. I know there was a recall on 67 Chevelle columns for something with that plastic pin

426 Hemi

tuxnharley

Thanks, John. That's an interesting piece of manufacturing history.

What was the purpose of the "pin"? I can't imagine it held much structural or shear value, and the two piece column was clearly designed to slide freely and shorten in the event of a frontal impact with strictural/frame damage.

My guess is that the pin was just intended to hold the two column pieces in a fixed configuration during shipping, installation, or both, and had no intended value during operation of the vehicle.

I see no downside to having temoved it to shorten the column during installation of the Borgeson box.

Your thoughts, please?

R6T7

John, I stand corrected - when I had mine apart there was no evidence of that pin - of course who knows what may have been done to the column. I assume the pin was to aid in vehicle assembly - but not likely to affect it's function in a crash?

Bob

Randy G.

I can't imagine Chevy putting a plastic pin in a steering column would be considered a major component of the assembly, but there must have been a reason they put it in there. After all these years I wonder how many haven't somehow broken anyway.

wmf62

I suspect the pin was to prevent handling or shipping damage prior to installation. once installed it should make no difference is the pin is sheared.

Bill

Nowhere Man

There was a recall on 67 Chevelle columns due to plastic pin So GM thought it was important enough to have a recall in 67.

tuxnharley

Who lnows. That recall could have been for just the opposite reason, say too much nylon injected that interferred with the collapsibility. It's all just speculation at this point. If one wants to imagine a problem there are lots of possibilities.

One thing is for certain - the lack of that little piece of plastic in no way detracts from the design function of of a collapsable steering column. I'd be much more concerned about a solid shaft in a pre '67 than nitpicking this.

JohnZ

I'm sure the injected pin was only there as a handling and assembly aid at Saginaw to maintain the design overall column length while all the other bits and pieces were added to make up the complete assembly as-shipped. The energy-absorbing function operated in three stages. On impact, the plastic pin sheared, and the lower shaft moved rearward about 2", until it bottomed-out on the lower end of the upper shaft. In the second stage, the perforated metal column outer tube (hidden under the tubular plastic sleeve) collapsed, and in the third stage, the plastic-injected pins in the three column-mounting ears sheared and allowed the column to move about another inch or two.

The injected pin through both shafts played no part in the actual energy absorption sequence.

Nowhere Man

Thanks. So it seems I was over thinking this. I still wouldn’t do it myself but it seems if you chose to it won’t hurt to much.

65 396

2X with tuxnharley