Cascade Crew

Xophertony

so i recently removed the steering column from my firebird. originaly from quasitraction ill-fated 85 z28. my original 86 column had some type of presumed turn signal problem, when i replaced the column it went away, but when chris installed the 86's column on his 85 the problem did not manifest itself on his 85 Shrug

..but i digress. i pulled out my current column (from 85z) and replaced it with one from an 87 z28. i did this to get one with delay whipers. well, turns out the 87 z28 columns delay switch was bad, the tilt mechanism is screwed up, and the column also looks way more sun damaged then the one i pulled out of the 86 (85 z-28 ).

well, today i took the non-delay switch out of the 85z column and replaced it with the delay switch out of a 92 firebird column that i got from Iansane (i think, or maybe sellmanB). once i had the colums side by side i realised that the plugs for the wiper switches were not the same after 87. so i had to re-pin the 92 firebirds delay switch using the plug from the 85z non-delay switch.

now its all back together and working fine. what a freaking nightmare though, so many pins and screws and retainer rings. one thing is for sure, the air bag colums are twice as bad. i now feel confident i could do it again though.

what i learned:
one other change in the later colums, the mounting plate that holdes the column to the dash is bolt on for 85/86/87 cars, and weld on for the 92 cars. made it way easy to get the wires in and out of the column withough that mounting plate on there.

air bag columns are crazy

it is WAY easy to change a lock cylinder if you have a lock plate detention tool (which i now have)

snap rings are a PITA even WITH snap ring pliers.

no matter what, grease will get everywhere.

Rolling Eyes

Quasi-Traction · Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2007 8:35 pm Post subject:

glad to hear you figured it out dude!

That column I gave you actually came out of the 84 Sport Coupe. The 85's column didn't have a tilt mechanisim and was only 2 speed wipers Wink

Xophertony · Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2007 8:10 am Post subject:

well i am not editing the post... Smile

Sellmanb · Member Joined: 30 Nov 2004 Posts: 727 Location: Tigard, OR

Hey glad to hear you've got everything figured out. Columns can be a PITA if you've never ripped one apart before, but once you've done one GM one, you can do just about every other GM one (newer columns are even easier). I know I pawned off a column to you at one point, it was a 91-92 camaro column IIRC, I cant remember if you kept it or not though.

And yes, snap rings are a real b!tch, I normally use two 90 degree picks to get them out (and a lot of swearing and often times stabbing myself lol)

Xophertony · Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2007 10:49 pm Post subject:

it's from a maro too? eventually i am not going to have any bird parts left. (Camaro rear seats, Camaro a-arm, Camaro column, 4th gen Camaro center console).

thanks for the clumn bobby. it went to good use. Cool

Xophertony · Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 2:11 pm Post subject:

well, the delay wippers still don't work, i called napa to get a new module and they do not list the modules, only the whole motor. ?? stealership i guess.

Sellmanb · Member Joined: 30 Nov 2004 Posts: 727 Location: Tigard, OR

the modules are a lot less expensive than a motor, even when priced against the stealership.