Hi everyone.

I need help with my tilting mechanism.

I ordered a new tilt knuckle from Corvette Central thinking mine was broken. If I put pressure on my tilt steering wheel, it would drop in my lap. It seemed to lock into place just fine when using the tilt lever, but if I induced any stout down-force on the steering wheel and it would collapse. I could move it from side to side as well.

After taking the whole thing apart, I can’t really tell what the problem is. The tilt knuckle isn’t worn at all. In fact, I’d say the pins are tighter in the old part than they are in the new one. Both sets of pins (old and new) are slightly sloppy in the outer housing. …But not bad at all. They required almost no force to remove when I pulled everything apart.

When I removed the old tilt knuckle, I noticed that it has two roll pins that catch the tilt locking pawls. The new one from Corvette Central only has one roll pin. I called them a few minutes ago to find out if I got the wrong part. The product specialist said that they are all that way; with only one roll pin. He thought that mine must have been modified by someone because he’d never heard of nor seen a tilt knuckle with more than one roll pin. But I’ve been searching the web and found a number of posts where the knuckle has two roll pins just like mine. He didn’t want to discuss it. Maybe Monday isn’t a good day to call Corvette Central’s technicians.

Has anyone else seen this double-pin setup? If so, what is the second pin for? Will it work on a car that has had the knuckle with two roll pins?

So looking everything over, I really don’t find anything that seems major enough to cause my steering wheel tilt mechanism to malfunction. That said, I noticed the two tilt locking pawls (the metal toothed levers which hook the roll pins.) are different from each other. I can see that their teeth are offset for more fine adjustment of the wheel, but the end of one looks like it might be broken off. Looking at the ends of the pawls, they are not the same. One looks a little jagged. The other is machined and smooth. Even then, how could that cause my tilting mechanism to easily release the steering wheel like it does?

I could sure use some help here. Please chime in if you have any thoughts on this.

So here are my questions:
1. Does anyone sell the outer housing for tighter pivot pins? I’ve read that oversized pins aren’t necessarily the answer.
2. What is the second roll pin supposed to be for?
3. Can the tilt locking pawls be purchased anywhere?
4. Is there anything else that could be causing the failed tilting function?

Thank you in advance for your help.

 

See if the info in the following thread helps:

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...pictorial.html

 

Thanks, seabright.

I've read through the thread many times already... Plus about thirty others. I can't find a direct answer to my problems with this thing anywhere.

I guess I could just throw in the new parts like most others do and live with the result. But I really want the steering to be TIGHT and I don't want to do this again anytime soon. One way or another I am going to win here! I might end up doing some lathe work to improve things. I'm thinking about making bronze or brass threaded races to hold the pins in place in lieu of leaving the pins to chew up the cast aluminum or pot metal or whatever GM used.

I wish I could find new locking pawls. I'm pretty sure one of mine is broken but not positive.

Oh, well. Thanks for the link.

 

Maybe this is one of the threads you haven't read:

http://www.superchevy.com/how-to/vem...teering-wheel/

 

There is two different (maybe 3) arrangements for potential tilt latching I believe. Let's start with the year of your car and the part # you bought from CC. If there's a label on the mast jacket of the steering column, what is that. Mast jacket id the part the ignition switch and the dimmer is attached to.

I may have some parts to fix this.

 

my car is a 1990 convertible with manual ZF-6. I'm not sure about the other questions. I know the column has "93" written on the side of it. The part from Corvette Central is #: 564458 Original GM #: 2601058.

I don't have any other info at this point.

Thanks.

 

That I believe is GM # 26010580 - #s 46 and 62 need to be from compatible columns to latch. #62 to be compatible needs to have I believe 2 different diameter pins through it. Does yours? (In your first post you said yes and that's what I assumed after you described the issue)I haven't done these columns for many years but some that actually thought they had issues just didn't understand where the pins in #62 need to be inserted (under the shoes #34 & 35) to allow latching - the shoes #34 & 35 I thought did '90 through '93 and then maybe '94+, the earlier through '89 was different yet. The housings (#46) all look alike.

You have to pull the latching bar #43 towards you when assembling to allow the pins to go into the housing correctly to allow latching. Are you sure you've done this assembly correctly? User"Chevyowner" I believe had this issue but I believe he was trying to mix parts from a couple different used columns. There's an email link if you click on my user ID, send me some snapshots maybe pointing out in marker or something the areas that concern you. As many snapshots as you can.

You of course can't see the pins in #62 but they should be obvious.

***
Never mind the snapshots I finally found the part on the CC web-catalog and I believe they've sold you a '94+ support - quite sure. They I would think have had this issue previously. I was only working with the GM# that you posted a portion of, I added a 0 and just used my catalog as that looked correct.

 

I have a #62 with 2 pins in a box with some column parts but I can't assemble to check "pin-fit" - wanna try it? I don't believe I have the pivot pins. I can't confirm for you that what they've sold you is the later but the other # they reference for the part 26010644 does nearly all Saginaw columns of that style for the later years. I might have the shoes from a later GM truck column that maybe would make your CC purchase work but that would suck.

If I have the #46 from the truck column you could likely use it as an assembly with the CC part also.

***
Are you a "gambler" and do you have any "junk-yard" relationships? There's something I always wanted to try but never had a reason to do it.

Use the email link in my "user id" and send me an email. I'll explain.

 

That is very helpful. Thank you for taking time to write all of that. It takes a great deal of thought and patience to respond the way you did and I truly want to thank you.

What I have right now is a completely disassembled column assembly. I expected to find the #62 with broken ears when I took it apart. Instead, it is fine. The pins tolerances are such that they don't wiggle. But in the housing part #46, the pins are sloppy. It seems that the holes are slightly oval. I think that is why the steering wheel wiggles.

From additional research today and your exploded diagram, I have concluded that the pawls, #35 and 34, are why the steering wheel will drop if I put pressure on it for any reason. Specifically the end of my pawl #35 is broken off. It is such a clean break that it looks like it was built that way. But there is no "hook" on the end of it. I'm wondering if that is the culprit somehow. I'm also suspicious of the upper bearings too. I mean, they look okay but maybe they are worn to allow movement of the steering shaft. I'm just conceptualizing here. I don't actually know how to tell if they are bad.

To answer your question, yes, my stock #62 has the double pins; one smaller than the other. The new part from Corvette Central only has one pin. The guy at Corvette Central said that it shouldn't matter. I really, really don't want to reassemble it all to find out that it won't work. The other problem is with the oblong holes in the #46. I need to deal with that somehow. I'm wondering about trying to make bushings of some kind that are tight to the pins and can be pressed into the #46 housing.

Am I confusing you on this?

Thanks again for all your help. I just got home from work so I'm going to investigate this closer now I have this new information. I'm thinking maybe I shouldn't use the Corvette Central part and just return it. What do you think?

 

I'll send you an email - I have many questions.

 

Bluezman,

I have a couple columns in my garage, one is mostly apart.. get some pictures of your pawls and I will compare to the ones I have..

I also might have a decent #46 as well

 

I rebuilt my 86 tilt column using parts from a Cadillac. Looks like the tilt parts were the same through all GM cars up through the early 90's. I found a tight column at pick-n-pull and got the entire tilt mechanism.

 

In these parts the JY guys learned many years ago the value of the Caddy and other GM Tilt/Telescopic and they haven't been inexpensive since. The "hot-rodder" crowd sometimes don't care what they pay, they just want it. Much harder to find reasonably priced BUT with patience sometimes.