Hello,

New to the forum and owned my C3 for about a year and a half.
Decided this winter to make it more mine by adding the features I desired. One of those was a tilt-tele column. As mine only had a standard one.

So I bought one on ebay. Looked complete but missing some horn parts. I painted it the saddle color of my 73.
I did some research before I bought it and decided that 69-75 are my target years.

Now I have it in my car and I'm getting ready to install the horn parts I bought when I noticed something different on the Jim Shea diagrams for those years compared to what I had.

The hub appears to be the 77-82 variety rather then the 69-76 years.
This is evident by the giant spring hanging of the hub.
I also noticed that the horn contacts are the later years as well.

So I guess my question is will it work? There are slight differences from older to newer this being one of them. That and the cruise controls and wiper controls are on the turn signals of the newer column.

I would appreciate any advise.

Thanks

 

Actually, the 1969-75 drawing is not correct. It should show the big spring on the lower horn contact assembly the same as the 1977-82 picture. So that contact (and spring) should work from 1969-75 and also 1977-82.)

The hub part number may be different between the two model years because the steering wheel spokes changed. Early steering wheels had a one piece spoke stamped out of one piece of stainless steel. The later steering wheels had the spoke assembly made from two pieces of steel and the two pieces were welded together. (The 9 and 3 o'clock spoke part was one piece and the 6 o'clock spoke was another piece of steel. They were then welded together.) This required the hub (at the 6 o'clock position) to have a small cutout to allow for the double thickness of metal at that position.

I just noticed that you said that you have wiper and cruise control levers on your new T&T steering column. That can only mean that you have a 1977 T&T steering column. That was the only year with wiper controls on the turn signal lever. That steering column should bolt right into your 1973 Vette.

According to Doc Rebuilds catalogue, the upper horn contact was the same for T&T columns from 1969-75 and 77 through 1982. So I don't think that you should have a problem in that area. The horn cap asseembly had different Chevrolet emblems for specific years. If you are not seeking an exact 1973 emblem, I would think that they all might fit for the various years because the upper horn contact is the same for all the C3 years.

Good luck,
Jim

 

Thanks Jim.

I actually don't have the cruise or windshield wiper controls. I was just stating a difference between generations.

You are a wealth of knowledge on these cars! Thank you for all your documentation and sharing your knowledge with everyone.
Would like to meet you someday and buy you a beer.

Jack