[PonchoV8]

I have a 68 tilt/cruise/floor shift column out of a 68 GTO. When I pulled it out of the car it came apart in 2 pieces. The upper part pulled out of the lower part that bolt/screws to the firewall. The const is some expanded metal on both pieces. The collapsable expanded metal has a sleeve over it and they meet in sort of an overlap deal. It's different from the columns I've seen that require more disassembly. Sound normal?

Doug

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"...then grease me up woman." Groundskeeper Willie

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[PonchoV8]

I have a 68 tilt/cruise/floor shift column out of a 68 GTO. When I pulled it out of the car it came apart in 2 pieces. The upper part pulled out of the lower part that bolt/screws to the firewall. The const is some expanded metal on both pieces. The collapsable expanded metal has a sleeve over it and they meet in sort of an overlap deal. It's different from the columns I've seen that require more disassembly. Sound normal?

Doug

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"...then grease me up woman." Groundskeeper Willie

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[Peter Serio]

Hi, the inner shaft & the outer metal of those old tilts were designed to teliscope closer together if, say you'd every run into something like a wall or T-pole. Often over time the injected plastic support in-between the 2 sliding pieces gets all dried out and britle, if half of your column is still bolted to the firewall & you have the other 1/2 in your hands, sounds like the column is separated. I think you might need to get a new column to fix this. The shifter tubes used to get loose like this on the old 69-72 Column shift 3 speed cars at the dealership where I worked when I was first starting out in cars. It was a major job to do one of those cars & as I recall it paid about a 1/2 days worth of time (4 hours), on flate-rate.

Pete

Peter Serio
Owner, Precision Pontiac

[PonchoV8]

Pete, thanks for the response. Here's a couple of shots of the deal. It's just different than anything I've ever seen before. See the expanded metal deal? It holds the bottom bearing of the shaft, but can be slid off. The inner shaft is still intact like normal columns though. That shot with me holding the removed lower is just thin, flexible plastic with an interference fit into the upper column. There is no attaching the 2. The piece I can remove has the same expanded metal stuff. Look familiar?

I don't think I'd have much luck finding another TILT/CRUISE column for a 68. I hope it's supposed to be like this.

Doug

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"...then grease me up woman." Groundskeeper Willie

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[PonchoV8]

2nd shot. Do all 68s have THREE mounting flanges? My 69 tilts just have 2.

Doug

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"...then grease me up woman." Groundskeeper Willie

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[meanolegoat]

Its a little before my time. But I belive that is the "energy absorbing" portion of the column that has seperated. It has either suffered a "lick" at some time or metal fatigue has taken its toll. either way, not repairable. Need to find at minimum a different coulmn housing, and closely examine the inner shaft assy, where its pinned togather with the plastic stuff. When you tear it down, you'll see what I mean. Like I said though, its beofre my time!!!
"mean"

[meanolegoat]

ps, to Pete, I rmember doing several of those shift tubes in the chevy trucks. Gawd those things were a pain in the ass. Once I finally got them in, I'd find out that the linkage had been so butchered (to make them shift prior to repair), that they still wouldn't shift. Thats why so many of 'em have holes in the floor!!!
"mean"

[PonchoV8]

Mean, you pegged it. It is th eoutside webbing that's broken. I was hoping it was just designed to slip fit, but it is broken. that would 'splain why it was a little loose feeling in the car. I'm gonna try to reshape and weld all the points back together, since this design is different than the 69 and up tilts and I've never found a 68 tilt in my scavenging to refit it. The inside is still tight. That black plastic sleeve in the picture is supposed to fit over the absorption stuff, but it's been broken and now fits inside the end of it. I know of several 68 non-tilt columns that would still have to be cut and trim to fit this tilt column anyway. I gotta try it since I want the car as built in 68.

Pete, they are a B---- the first couple of times to break down and redo. I've had to do this on a 69 that the shifter indicator tube had rusted up badly. Ah, new problems...

Doug

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"...then grease me up woman." Groundskeeper Willie

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[PonchoV8]

I used a band clamp to draw in the expanded metal in a uniform manner and set it in place where it had seperated. A wire feed welder secured all the seperations back in place. I had to weld one point together, turn to another point about 1/3 around the shaft and weld that point up while making sure everything was still square and centered as I proceeded. The repair seems to be pretty sound and is not seen with the plastic shroud back in place.

Doug

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"...then grease me up woman." Groundskeeper Willie

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['ol Pinion head]

Have pulled literally hundreds of '67-68 tilt cores over the last dozen years. The real fun is diassembling them & putting them back together . Also using a "column stretcher" on '67-68 columns out of cars that were popped so hard in the front the expanded metal is all smashed up in a ball The expanded metal outer tube design worked well, but am personally glad GM went to the collapsing inner tube & shaft in '69.

In answering your above question, yes '68 A-bodys & '68 A-bodys used 3 bolt plate to attach column to dash. Some big big car even used 4 bolts. Cannot remember which had 4, too many parts pulled over the years

[PonchoV8]

Thanks, all. I think the repair'll work alright for me. It's not gonna see much muscle for the rest of it's life. It's just a convert with lots of luxury options.

Doug

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"...then grease me up woman." Groundskeeper Willie

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