[68Pontiac]

I'm hoping somebody can straighten me out here. I have a '68 Tempest with a tilt column and auto column shift. The turn signal switch has been broken since I purchased the car from it's previous owner (the ears that hold and engage the cam were broken off). I performed a turn signal switch R&R on my other '68 but it was a standard column and floor shift which I remember being much easier.

I have the column torn down this far, as shown



I have the old switch out but my problem is that I can't get the new switch wires down the shaft because that housing/tilt mechanism is in the way of the wire tunnel. I'm talking about the big black thing right in the middle of the column, the piece that my turn signal switch bolts to. How the hell does this thing come apart? I yanked my old switch through it but there's no way I'm feeding wires around it.

Thanks for the help!

[rexs73gto]

You will have to feed it back down through the left side as your looking at it just like it came out. If the old one came out that way the new one WILL go back in. Just take your time & you'll have to bend the connector end so it is at a right angle to the column so you can feed it back down through. Just take your time it will go back in.

[Mr Twister]

Like Rex said, but take tape and tape the connector at a right angle and it will go right through. Fold over to make it pointy.

[68Pontiac]

Thanks for the advice, guys. I got it in eventually with a tiny amount of patience and some frustration.

I actually ended up cutting off the terminals on the end of the old switch, leaving me with the ribbon of wires. I spent an hour fishing the ribbon backwards through the column until it came out the bowl. Then I cut the terminals off the new switch and taped the two ribbons back-to-back and fed it all down the column again. Of course that leaves me without terminals on the wires but I'm pretty good at soldering so I spliced them all back together and shrink wrapped them.

It's more work than it should have been but at least I felt like I was making progress this way instead of getting nowhere the other way. I ended up bending and almost breaking too many of the terminals trying to get the whole harness intact through the column and wire channel. And after all that I forgot the little light that illuminates the gear shift indicator...

[Darth Menace]

I bought a new tilt lever, hazard knob and turn signal lever. Is this the trouble I have to go through to install the turn signal lever I have been putting off? Pulling the steering wheel and wiring? dammit!

[68Pontiac]

Originally Posted by Darth Menace

I bought a new tilt lever, hazard knob and turn signal lever. Is this the trouble I have to go through to install the turn signal lever I have been putting off? Pulling the steering wheel and wiring? dammit!

Sorry for the late reply! If you are only replacing the levers and hazard knob you don't have to do any wiring work. The tilt lever unscrews without any tools at all. Just spin it off like it is right now and you can thread a new one in. Same with the hazard knob, it just threads off without any disassembly. The turn signal lever is hidden behind the wheel. So you'll pull the wheel (and the hub if it's a custom wheel) to get to the top of the turn signal switch. One screw holds the lever on the switch.