tilt steering column swap
 

Hi All, I am new to the board and am restoring a '72 GMC. The engine goes in this weekend so maybe it will be on the road soon.

I need a new steering column so I am going to put in a tilt. I wanted a factory lookin one so I was shopping around for a rebuilt one. I can find them - but no shifters. Apparently GM stopped making them and everyone is waiting for someone else to make them. I was able to find an original tilt that has not been rebuilt. Any opinions on which is better. An OEM that is iffy or a rebuilt van column.

For the van column: I know that the shaft is about 3 inches longer so I have to colapse the column that much to make it fit. The part that concerns me is the neutral safety switch. I have to move it on the van column. Is this a big deal? I couldn't find any write ups on it and any advise would be great.

p.s. Anyone from the San Jose, CA area??

:bowtie:

There are columns with shifters out there. I do not know how many of the supporting vendors, (vendors listed on the home page), have them, but I know that Rick's Pickup Parts has one; I think he gets $50 dollars for a rechromed one. I bought my rebuilt column from the Truck and Car Shop, and it came with a new tilt and signal lever, and a used shift lever, all included in the price.

Here is some information on the van tilt neutral safety switch move with a picture.

Jim

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...threadid=55035

i think one of my catalogs has em. but i dont know.

Found it!!
 

I found one!!! Thanx for the posts. The link lead me to another post with a company name. I called them and they had one complete factory rebuilt tilt column left!!!! (There site was screwed up so I had passed them up when looking previously.)

Got it from "Christian's".

The problem was never finding the column, I actually found a few. No one had the shift lever for it. The wait was anywhere from 4 weeks to 6 months. If you have any extra shift levers out there, there are people that need them.

Thank you again for your comments.:p