Took a Vette cruising yesterday evening ( my wife and I ) ... driving my '72 down a 4 lane at about 40 mph and went to adjust the telescoping wheel a bit ... just a bit ... and what do you know ... the steering wheel and shaft ended up in my lap ... now that will get your attention ... triing to get the car to stop straight ... started to veer into oncoming traffic ... but was able to 'feather' it to a stop in the esplenade.

Wow will that get your attention !!!

 

Wow.. glad to hear that you are safe.

 

GEEZ.............that's terrifying. Glad you're ok.

 

At least you got to show your wife first hand your excellent driving skills.....

Did you find out what broke yet?....

 

Holy Crappola! Way to stay cool...

Sounds like your lock plate and/or the lock plate clip may be AWOL? Break out the SW puller and dig in.

Careful out there...

 

Sounds like you put an end to the myth that the wife can drive from the passengers seat!

All joking aside, that must have been a nervous 20 seconds or so.

 

We will certainly be interested to find out what failed

 

Man you were very lucky no one got hurt! Talk about an Adrenalin rush! Let us know what broke in there.
Glenn

 

Hi sray,
I thought that could only happen in old Laurel and Hardy movies. It was always a model T, and Laurel usually handed the wheel to Hardy in the passengers seat.
Sounds like Someone was looking out for the two of you.
Regards.,
Alan

 

That is rather bizarre but thumbs-up to you for handling the situation! My reading of Jim Shea's papers over the years "seems" to indicate that a rag joint can't let go completely. But I may be wrong.

 

You should have handed the wheel to your wife and told her to drive............I guess you were a bit busy for jokes though at that point.......WOW !

 

I know how you felt! I had the idler arm break on a 64 Buick going down a two lane highway with traffic comming at me. Sure gets your attention fast!

 

Have you done any part of the autopsy? I bet the plastic lock retainer broke and as you turned the wheel the c-clip came out.

 

now that must have scared the hell out of ya!!

 

my steering box stripped out on me once. i was only doing like 15mph.. it caught REALLY hard.. wouldnt turn at all, then i could spin the wheel till the cows came home... at least i wasnt driving into oncoming traffic like you were!
glad your safe. maybe time for an upgrade?

 

I think he's past this point

 

Look Ma no hands!

Glad to hear it turned out safely.

 

I am certainly glad that you are safe and OK from your experience. I am quite sure that the problem with your T&T steering column is a missing c-clip.


The clip in the above picture prevents the upper steering shaft (with the steering wheel and hub) from pulling out of the steering column just as you experienced. As long as the telescope lock is secure the upper shaft cannot move. Release the telescope lock (without the clip) and you can experience exactly what happened to you.

The missing part is GM 7819976 called a retainer. There should be another plastic part (also called a retainer) that should be installed on top of the clip. It is GM 7808385. The plastic part insures that the clip cannot migrate out of its slot. It also acts to insulate the big spring on the cancelling cam and prevents your horn from blowing continuously. Both parts are still available through GM dealers and also through most Corvette suppliers.

You will need a steering wheel puller to seperate the steering wheel hub from the upper steering shaft. Then you can install the upper shaft into the steering column shaft as shown in the above picture. You will need to lock the upper shaft in place so that you can use a special tool to compress the locking plate and install the missing clip.

The steering wheel hub puller and the locking plate compression tool can be purchased, borrowed, or rented from most major automotive stores.

Full instructions on removing and installing the upper column T&T parts can be found at:
http://jimshea.corvettefaq.com/wp-co...ev15jn2009.pdf

Again sorry to hear of your experience but I am glad that everyone and everything is OK.

Jim

 

Thanks Jim ... I believe your right ... it certainly looks to be in the right place as I've found a long thin pin and what looks like a woodruff key on the floor board. I'm guessing the key fits into the "keyway side of steering shaft yoke" indicated in your picture ...

Again THANKS for the information !!!

 

You are correct. What you called a woodruff key is actually a wedge and it does fit into a slot on the upper shaft on the keyway side of the shaft yoke. When you rotate your telescope lock ring, the long thin rod pushes on the end of the wedge and it ***** to lock the telescoping feature. You can see the wedge and rod in this sectional view of the T&T head.

You don't make mention of finding the c-clip. That is the critical safety part that prevents just what you experienced. Very few of us have owned our cars from the beginning so as to know the service history through the years. With the telescoping feature locked, a person could go forever without knowing that the c-clip was missing. (A lot of people own cars with telescoping columns and never even realize that it has that feature.)

Let me know if there is anything that I can help you with.
Jim Shea