Ok, I had a customer come in with a terrible belt noise on his 98 vette. After looking over the vehicle I nticed the harmonic balancer had a "wicked wobble". So we ordered the damper, crank seal and new crank bolt. So I started the job. With my lack of knowledge on the job I went to alldata. I put a steering wheel holder on and disconnected the battery. Proceeded to remove the rack and pinion to access the damper. I used my 3 prong balancer tool to remove the damper (no air tools used). Installed the seal, pulley and new bolt. Long story short, got everything back together, now I'm getting the "service column lock" message and the vehicle will not stay running when releasing the brake pedal going into in gear idle. The vehicle has had the recall performed. Does anyone have any tips. I hooked up our tech2 scanner and what I noticed is the column lock is cutting off the fuel.

 

There is a ton of info on this site about your problem. Try disconnecting the battery and charging it up first and see if that scores. Then do a search in this section and you will find what you are looking for most of the time it is a weak battery. If it has been in your shop a few days, there are modules that will drain a c5 battery in a matter of days

 

This is a chronic problem with C5's. Most of the time its caused by low battery voltage but eventually it will bite the owner at the worst time and he/she will be stuck. The best solution is to bypass the entire column lock circuit and the fuel cutoff by installing what is known as a LMC5. It is supplied by Compliance Parts for about $45 dollars and takes about 1/2 hour to install. Another guy on the CF 8VETTE7 is the expert on this subject.

 

So it sounds like the steering wheel is locked. There is a remedy to get the car moving again. It involves turning ignition on (engine off), pulling two fuses in fuse box under glove box, pulling key and reinstalling fuses, cycling ignition switch.

The issue happened to me once and was surprised it didnt trip any codes.

Hasnt happened since.

 

Most likely fuses 25 and 29 are what i pulled with ignition on.

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums/c5-tech/1944829-service-steering-column-lock-wait-10-after-recall-how-completely-disable.html

 

The LMC5 is the way to go.

 

I consider the LMC5 to be the best Column Lock problem permanent fix out there. It also does not require you to “undo” any previous CL attempts to resolve this issue. Their eBay ads have a good video that shows the install at the BCM. It does not cover everything in the written instructions. So, read the instructions and also here is some extra info. In some cases, the BCM timing is off just enough to cause some issues. They make several versions and they can swap out/provide one of these if you have any issues. Their customer support is as good as it gets.

Not uncommon for people to "put the column in a pre-lock condition" and not know it and then start with the install. In other words, they started with the column lock “energized’ even if it was not actually locked yet. If not actually locked yet, it will be as soon as you turn the steering wheel after the LMC5 install. It will then remain in the locked condition until you cause the motor to unlock. It will then remain in the unlocked condition since the motor is then unpowered with the circuits disconnected.

Here is one way to prevent that if your column locks and unlocks normally:

If the CL is functioning normally you don't not need the Unlocker, merely turn the ignition ON, pull fuse #23, turn ignition OFF, turn the steering wheel (left and right) and verify it is unlocked. Next, disconnect the negative battery terminal, re-insert fuse #23 and continue with the install.

Also the 1999 and later C5's have a column lock relay that can be unplugged or else it will be powered and could fail and drain the battery. The LMC5 written guidance provides this info. This relay is above the BCM.

They also have a great install video in their eBay ads you need to watch.

Compliance Parts website: http://complianceparts.com/index.html