Horn, Turn Signal, Steering Column

[asphaltburner]

Yo! Y’all!
Took quite awhile for me to finally discover, and document, the answers to my questions about horn hardware in the ‘70’s and 80’s trucks. Here’s what I’ve found,…
Seems like the 1973-1978 steering wheels were all the “Type I” steering wheel,…with a smaller, more-square horn button. These continued through 1987, but the “Type II” steering wheel was begun in 1978 and continued through 1987 in addition. The Type II wheel had a much larger, more-rectangular horn button. Here’s pics of the Type II wheel with the Type II horn button above, and the smaller, Type I horn button below:



Assembly: First, here’s that infamous turn signal switch (the return springs are easily seen) and the copper horn contact:



Turn signal cancelling cam in place:



Steering lockplate ready for installation:



Lockplate compression tool (like $13 from NAPA. Can be done without it, but I wish you GOOD LUCK!):



More pics and procedure in the following post.
Todd.

[asphaltburner]

Yo! The rest of the story:

“C” clip in place to hold spring tension against the upper steering shaft bearing:



Plastic dust cover:



Type II steering wheel ready for tightening to 30 ft lbs:



Belleville spring drops onto a ledge molded into the Type II wheel’s rubber (in the Type I wheel, the spring has a ring-like, milky-white plastic insulator that encircles the outer edge and is held in place simply by the receiver and insulator):



Receiver and insulator screw down over the spring, and GM adds the triangular steering wheel nut keeper to the end of the shaft for safety:



Final assembly in the following post.
Todd.

[asphaltburner]

Finally, the remaining assembly and pics:

Then the Type II horn button snaps in place over the receiver:



And the final result:



FYI: The Belleville Spring for the Type I steering wheel is nearly identical, but has a ring-like insulator that can be slipped off:



Sure hope this helps folks in the future! I was unable to search out any of this info anywhere, and neither my Camaro shop manual or any of my truck info pictures the steering column final assembly or the parts. I tryed to title this so that the key words would be easily found via forum search.
This truck is a '78, and the small, square horn button and Belleville Spring came from a '73.
Todd.

[JohnC]

This is a great tech article. Great photos and advice. May also be good to show the removal of the steering wheel too. It's pretty simple, but still may be worth a photo shot!

[asphaltburner]

Yo! I'll add that to it ASAP! Today, however, FRANKENTRUCK is spending the day playing in the snow!
Thanks JohnC!
Glad you like the pictorial.
Todd.

[heavychevy79]

Cool, I like it.
I haven't forgot about your prev thread either, I've just been camera delete.

The only thing I can add now is that my 78 Silverado has this style wheel, and I'm sure it's factory original.

[Prong]

Those are the "deluxe" option steering wheels, usually found on the silverados.

[JohnC]

You can look on LMC's site or catalog. They show the different steering wheels. The earlier one was more prominent in the earlier trucks, not sure when they changed to the other one. I know the one that heavychevy has is the main one in the 81-87 trucks. I don't remember seeing the other ones in them. Like Prong said though it could be all a part of options.

[bumslie75]

Originally Posted by heavychevy79

Cool, I like it.
I haven't forgot about your prev thread either, I've just been camera delete.

The only thing I can add now is that my 78 Silverado has this style wheel, and I'm sure it's factory original.

Nice truck what is the floor in your truck i like that

[TexasJeff]

The best thing about both these style of wheels is the GM used the same mounting of wheels with a lot of thier cars and trucks through the 70's and 80's, so wheels from Camaro's, Monte Carlo's, Vega's will all bolt straight up to our trucks, I think mine is from a Camaro, it is a smaller diameter than the truck wheels

[asphaltburner]

Yo! Nate!
Glad you like the pictorial. It's all the information I could gather from the junkyard trucks, catalogs, and my '78 and '73. I've found NO printed information, and dealerships around the country are clueless. My post asking about this information on this forum went unanswered.
I'm sure that there are a number of minor variants out there and you can be proud of yours'! It looks like it might be a Type I wheel with a horn button that I've not seen previously.
Anybody else able to post pics of steering wheels, different from these, that are factory from the '73-'87 time period?
Thanks! This post SHOULD be here to continually collect this kind of info for future use. Todd.

[asphaltburner]

Yo!
Absolutely true, TexasJeff,...I sure wish more could've been interchangable. And to confirm your thought that your wheel might be from a Camaro,...here's my factory original:



Mine is a '76 Camaro,...or so it still appears.
Todd.

[oldbutnotdead]

I have a 1968 k20 which had an aftermarket steering wheel. I found an original wheel (type I) in good shape, and an original horn cap. I can get the cap installed but the horn continually goes off.

Now I just happened to see this post and realized that the cap installation kit which I purchased didn't include the small plastic insulator that goes around the spring.

Anyone know where to find this part? I have not seen them in any of the parts catalogs.

Thanks!

[slugish]

Really appreciate your article asphalt burner. lots of time & effort to post something like this just to help fellow members. Efforts like this help make this forum special .

By the way Ihave cnsidered changing my stock steering wheel on my 84 to either an aftermarket (ie Grant) or something smaller off a car . Based upon what Iam hearing only certain wheels will fit our trucks without a lot of fabrication . In other words Ijust can't go to the bone yard > pick out one I like & bolt it on . Is this true .

Yea a thred on the removal would be very cool also .

Thanks again

[THE "10" SILVERADO]

This is a nice thread....so I would need to do atleast some of these steps to install one of these steering wheels? The wooden one on the top right

http://www.lmctruck.com/icatalog/cc/full.aspx?Page=99

[nbpro]

great article
http://motors.shop.ebay.com/i.html?r...=p4506.c0.m282

[LukeSkywanker]

Asphaltburner! Here it is, 2017 and your post from 2009 was a lifesaver for me. No doubt, the steering column on my 1978 C20 was shrouded in mystery until I found this. I've searched everywhere for this info and not only is it all here, it makes the PAIN IN THE ASS GM Steering Column less mysterious. Thank you, sir!