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My stock column saver mod for R&P

43K views 89 replies 42 participants last post by  NickeR 
#1 · (Edited)
I decided that I wanted to re-use the stock 63 column instead of buying a $400 tilt column. Money just was not in the budget. After seeing whats currently available for this mod I decided I did not like the fact that none of the options kept the steering shaft located "in and out" and the shaft still relies on the ancient stock upper bearing in the plastic turn signal switch for supporting the upper part of the shaft.

I cut the shaft at the base of the box to keep the most available for the new u-joint.



After sawing off the base of the column I measured the I.D. of the tube at 1.87"



I went to the local bearing house and found a bearing with a 3/4 I.D and a locking collar, with a 1.86 O.D. and an external snap ring.


I purchased two bearings, one for the bottom and one went as far up the column tube as possible.



Here is the column base, you can see the outer snap ring keeping the bearing from pulling up into the column. You can also see the set screws keeping the shaft locked to the inner race



This scallop is where the new upper bearing stops at and I ran the drill screws in under the bearing to keep it in place. It cannot go up or down at this point and this bearing takes the load off of the tiny upper bearing in the OEM turn signal switch.



Column is complete



New floor plate I made out of some scrap 1/8" steel. Bored a 2" hole and the column fits tight



Done except for welding a couple of tabs on the column to bolt to the floor plate.

 
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#6 ·
Very helpful!

I did the same thing with mine but instead of using the bearings, I measured the inner diamater of the colum and bought some round stock of Delrin off of ebay and sliced them like hockey pucks and drilled out the correct diameter holes.

I ended up having to get a new colum becuase of some unrelated damage though.

Nice job.
 
#18 ·
Thanks for the comments, gonna use the approx $350 I saved on an AAW complete wiring harness:yes:

BTW you dont need to weld tabs like I am gonna do you could spent 25 bucks on a lower column mount that clamps to the column and bolts to the floor plate. Ididit makes them.
 
#21 ·
To answer the last 2 questions, the way I did it not work with a column shift as far as I know but its a possibility to make it work. I am using a muncie so I did not even consider the column shift possibility. FYI this was a 3 on the tree column to start with.

And yes it will work with a 62 column as long as you go floor shift.
 
#33 ·
Thats good, I still dont see an upper bearing so the stock tiny bearing in the plastic turnsignal housing takes alot of the load. I used an upper bearing in this column for half price of the cpp kit. Whatever works.
Do you possibly know what your steering shaft length is? I've been trying to have this question answered a few times to no avail.

Sent from my ADR6350 using AutoGuide.Com Free App
 
#35 ·
Do you possibly know what your steering shaft length is? I've been trying to have this question answered a few times to no avail.

Sent from my ADR6350 using AutoGuide.Com Free App
I did not take any measurements. I cut it off as close to the box as possible. When I mounted it in the car with the rack in place and u-joints mounted I cut the intermediate shaft to fit.
 
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