Steering Column Tear Down

I finally got the steering column taken apart and it’s ready for refinishing. I have a friend with a sand blasting cabinet and he’ll likely paint it for me.  So without further ado, this is the process. I basically copied the process that Cody (from cuda-challenger.com) did, but his sight is no longer up and there were a few key learnings I wanted to add. He blazed the trail and all the credit is due him. Keep in mind, this is pretty long.

The first few pictures are of the whole column as removed from the car. It was in decent shape to start with, but since the paint on the car is so nice, I wanted to make sure everything else was just as nice.

Remove the center nut that holds the crush can in place.

This is the steering wheel puller I used to pull the crush can. It should be available at your local parts house. It was about $10. It looked like it wouldn’t fit in the can, but it just took some maneuvering.

I found that the easiest way to put the puller in place was to stand the column vertical on the floor so the center shaft was easy to hold while threading in the side bolts. The side bolts were just put in finger tight and then the center shaft was snugged up so it would hold together after laying it back down horizontally.

Once the puller is in place, tighten the center shaft to pull the crush can off.  ALWAYS use a puller.  Don’t ever use anything to pry off the can from the outside.

I had to hold the column in place in the vice so it wouldn’t turn while tightening the puller.  It wasn’t extremely tight to remove the can.

Once I started getting it to move, it came off quite easily.

The view from the inside after the crush can is off.

Remove the three screws to detach the plate that holds the turn signal switch in place.

Remove the plate.

Remove the blade screw that holds the turn signal arm in place. This one was a bit tight to get turning.

You can see that the screw is sort of long.

Now the signal switch can be removed from the shaft and set aside out of the way.  It will be fully removed later.

Here you can see the night light installed. It is next to be removed.

Two screws and it’s out.  It needs to be set aside like the signal switch.

Now remove the three screws that hold the next section in place.

Once those screws are out, there is a snap ring that holds the center bearing in place.

Remove it.  You can see that the signal switch is still sort of in the way.

Now remove the column mount which is also the outer wire covering.

Next is the inner wire covering.

Both of these are easily removed.

Once the covers are removed, the wiring harnesses can be pulled through the end of the column.

You can see here that they are sliding through the housing.

And out comes the signal switch.

The column light comes out at the same time in the same way.

I don’t show it here, but to get this section off (that has the bearing in it), I held the section and bumped the shaft with a brass hammer head.  I didn’t hit it hard, just a few bumps and it came right off and the bearing came out.

Here’s the section with the bearing.

The bearing is held in a rubber housing that easily comes off.  The bearing here will be replaced.

This is the view of the next section that holds the steering lock mechanism.

First the keeper washer needs to be removed.

Next is a collar that covers and holds the roll pin in place.  A fine blade screwdriver will get it loose enough to remove.

Remove the collar.

I used a drift to remove the roll pin from the locking wheel.  It came out pretty easy but in retrospect, I should have put a solid support under the shaft instead of what you see in this picture.

Out comes the pin and the locking wheel.

The center shaft can now be removed.

Here it is in its corroded glory.

Now on to the two screws that hold the buzzer switch in place.

Once the screws are out, set the switch aside.  You can’t remove this harness yet.

Now remove the two screws that hold the steering lock pin mechanism in place.

Next, there are three screws that hold the ignition switch in place that should be removed.

With those screws removed, the ignition and buzzer switches can be removed through the housing.

You’ll notice that the ignition harness has been removed but there still remains a single orange wire. This is for the backlight on the gear selector dial.  This wire isn’t removed yet.

Next remove the steering lock mechanism.

Now you can remove the ignition lock assembly.  In this picture, I’m using a nail to push the release on the lock to allow it to slide out from the housing.  WARNING: Be sure to remove the key from the lock (if it is in).  I didn’t remove my key and the lock wouldn’t come out without some “help”.  The “help” broke the pin that engages the key buzzer switch we removed earlier.

Here’s another picture with the nail pointing at the release hole.

Now remove the screw for the back-light on the gear selector dial.  This is the orange wire that hasn’t been removed yet.

Here it is once removed.

As you can see, the wire is connected in the main ignition connector.  This wire goes through a small wire-sized hole in the housing to be removed so it has to come out of the connector.

I used an awl to force it out of the connector.

Once it was out of the large connector, it came right out.

Now the selector dial can be removed.

Before the dial can be removed, both the front two screws (previous picture) and this selector screw have to be removed together.  Don’t pull without removing this screw or you might bend the selector needle.

It all comes out at once and is easy to take apart after that.

The next section comes off with for small bolts.  I think they were 5/16″.

This piece comes off easily.

Note that there is one other piece to be removed from this part of the housing.

Two screws and it’s off.

Now to remove the shifter arm. Another roll pin to be removed.

This one came out pretty easily too.

Once the arm is out, you can see the spring still in the housing. Don’t lose this.

This last part of the housing is attached to the column inner tube with an allen screw.

Screw being removed here.

It’s not easy to tell here, but the right most ’shiny’ spot is where the allen screw held the housing in place.  The screw was in pretty tight.

Remove the lower tube bearing clip.

The center tube can now be removed.  Notice all the rust and the dust shield that is pretty much worthless.

Inner and outer tubes now separated.

Time to remove the firewall mounts.

This shows the rubber o-ring that is between the two pieces.

This and the next few shots show the final piece to be removed. There is a custom keeper in the upper end of the outer tube.  It is held in place by a spring washer.

The custom washer/keeper in place.

Here the custom keeper and the spring washer can be seen.  The spring washer came out easily enough with a screwdriver. I had to use a dent puller with a hook to get the custom keeper out.  It didn’t take much force, but just a bump from the back side to pull it out.

Here they are together. The custom one goes in only one-way.

Here’s the bench with all the pieces.

You’ll notice I didn’t put all the screws back in their places after removing pieces.  While taking everything apart, I just put them in bags and labeled appropriately for later assembly.

Finally on to the steering coupler. I used my awl again to pry the keepers open.

Once they were open a bit, a blade screwdriver helped the rest of the way.

Now the keeper and rubber seal can be pulled back.  The unit is full of REALLY old grungy grease.

It almost will come off, but there is a pin that holds things together.

I used a screwdriver and a brass hammer head to poke the pin out.  I didn’t remove the pin from the housing, just out enough to be flush on the inside.

With the pin out of the way, the housing will come right off.

Now all the inner pieces can come out easily.

Once they were all removed, they can be cleaned.

Since most of the parts are now going to see the sand blasting cabinet for some cleanup, I wanted to protect the smooth surfaces.

This part also needs to be protected.  This is the copper horn connector in the crush can.

This is the first installment.  Now I’ll get the parts cleaned up and ready for paint and then final assembly.  More to come!