In putting my steering column back together, I'm having a problem with placement of the Telescopic lever. I managed to snap in half the steering wheel nut retainer when trying to place it up against the steering wheel nut. (I forget how it goes on and didn't take a pic of its position.) Then I figured it wasn't that important and moved on to install the telescopic lever only to find out that has too much play and can't be installed properly. Now I'm wondering it the steering wheel nut retainer should go on the first serration of the shaft, looking down at it from the driver's seat, and not up against the nut, to properly support the lever. It appears that the first serration is not part of the shaft threading. Any help would be appreciated.

 

The steering wheel nut retainer goes on the upper steering shaft after the steering wheel nut is tightened in place. The Steering Wheel and Horn Parts blowup drawings are sort of misleading. They show the retainer as if it goes on the steering shaft before all of the other parts. That is not correct.

The retainer is mearly an additional safety measure to make sure that if someone forgot to tighten the steering wheel nut, that nut could not back completely off of the shaft and the steering wheel and hub end up in your lap.

Now to try and tackle your other problem. I really don't understand about the telescope locking lever having "too much play and can't be installed properly."

Even without the steering wheel in place, you should be able to install the star screw and tighten it down with a phillips screwdriver. At that point, the screw should be tight and the upper steering shaft should be locked and not telescope. With the star screw tight, the telescope locking lever should be attached to the star screw with two tiny screws that fit into the scallops on the star screw head.

Now you need to install all the steering wheel, horn, and telescope locking parts for your 1976, but if the star screw is tight the locking lever should be tight as well.

Jim

 

I guess I didn't explain the problem very well. The question is does the steering wheel nut retainer rest up against the nut or go on the very top of the shaft? It seems that upon my attempt to install it, it went on the very first serration of the shaft fairly easily perhaps a quarter of an inch or so above (or before) the properly installed and torqued nut. However, when I tried to stretch it open more to place it up against the nut, it snapped in half.

Now, keeping in mind this retainer and turning to the tele lever, this lever wobbles even with the star screw tight, locking the upper shaft and the 2 tiny screws installed. It seems as though when I initially had the nut retainer installed on the first serration, it provided a base for the lever to sit, keeping it from wobbling.

In your "1969-1982 T & T Steering Column Disassembly and Repair Instruction Paper #1, you make reference to installing a spacer just before installing the tele lever in your "Adjusting the Telescoping Lever" section on the top of page 12. Does the lever sit on this spacer? My '76 has no spacer which seems is needed to provide a seat for the lever to prevent it from moving side to side(wobbling) even though the upper shaft is locked in place with the star screw installed. It seems without something directly underneath the lever, it cannot be secured even with the two small screws installed. So my question is, does the nut retainer take the place of the spacer? In doing so, it would then be dual functional, being both a nut retainer and a lever spacer.

I hope I'm making this clear but it is hard to do so w/o visually showing you the problem. Many thanks for your help, Jim

 

The spacer is called a shim in the above drawing. The shim or shims is needed to space the horn contact and the horn cap toward the driver so that there is just enough clearance so that the cap doesn't drag on the telescope locking lever.

I still don't understand the lever wobble problem. When you rotate the lever clockwise until it locks the upper steering shaft from telescoping, I just don't see how the star screw (and the lever) can wobble.

When you rotate the lever CCW, there might be a small amount of clearance in the star screw threads so that the lever may seem a little loose. But that is only when you are adjusting the telecope function.
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The steering wheel nut retainer goes in the groove right at the end of the steering column shaft. It typically isn't even touching the steering wheel nut. It just prevents the nut from coming off the shaft if it was not tightened properly.

Jim

 

Well Jim, I put the lever on and by tightening the hell out of the 2 small screws after the star screw was in , the wobbleness disappeared when the tele lever is locked. I guess it is okay. We shall see. In any event, may thanks for you help on this project. So that you know, once the steering wheel was centered by adjusting the tie rods, the left turn signal properly cancels. Jud