Steering Column Wiring?

[ChevDog1]

Hey guys - new member here, and I already have a question. My truck is a 1980 C10 Stepside. It has the 250 I6, and was originally equipped with a three speed maual with column shift. I bought the truck from a guy who had lost interest in the project, after he had swapped in a TH400. Part of his trans swap was to get a non-tilt column out of what he said was a Suburban (didn't mention year). The turn signal stalk has been modified - looks to have an aftermarket cruise switch on it.

The trouble I am having is with the wiring. He simply plugged the column harness into the body harness on the truck. I have ignition (I have the truck running now), the headlights work, floor mounted dimmer works, hazard lights work, and the brake lights work. What I don't have is wipers, turn signals, park lights, horn. In addition, when I try to use the wipers, the gauges all go nuts, and both of the turn signal indicators on the dash come on. The truck will also start in gear. Also - he pulled a heavy gauge yellow wire and connected it to a heavy gauge purple wire with a wire nut. If I disconnect this, the starter doesn't work.

I'm guessing that this column must be a later model, but do not know how to tell for sure. Do any of you have experience with a similar issue? Is there a way to modify the wiring on my column to work?

Thanks!

[J Knight]

Im going to take a wild guess that you have the 84-87/91 column with the wiper and dimmer switch on the column. The ignition switch should be the same but Im not sure if changes were made to the long plug or not but the part #'s are different. It may be worth your time to find an 73-83 truck, burb, blazer, or crew culumn or maybe try to use the 80 turn signal switch in the new column.

[1774btcrew]

A picture is worth a thousand words. I can help you more knowing what column it is.

[ChevDog1]

What parts in particular do you need to see in the pics? I can take some tonight when I get home.

[ChevDog1]

My existing column is not a tilt unit. If I have to source another column, I will be looking for one with tilt. Anything from 73-83 should be plug & play?

[1774btcrew]

Just a picture of the column where the tilt and turn signal levers are.

[1774btcrew]

Then a picture of the area where the turn signal lever mounts will work. They all bolt up but 73-78 had a splined lower column and 79-83 had a double d shaft. The benefit of the double d shaft is you can use a Jeep Cherokee intermediate shaft. It doesn't use a rag join at the steering box and takes a lot of the slop out of the steering wheel. If you get a 73-78 column just be sure to get the intermediate shaft with it.

[ChevDog1]

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Here is a shot of the column, and below is the plug and the purple/yellow wire splice. The indicator stalk does not appear to have the dimmer switch built in.

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Tonight, when I was out taking pics, I tried the signals again - the right turn worked! Left turn just came on, but the flasher didn't click. Still have the dash indicators coming on when I turn on the wipers. Tail and marker lights still won't turn on. I found a loose black wire under the dash, and when I grounded it, the lights got a bit brighter.

[J Knight]

It appears you have the right column.

[ChevDog1]

I was afraid someone was going say that. This means I have some wiring issues to figure out. I hate sorting out other peoples wiring hacks...

[1774btcrew]

There is a good chance that the contacts on the actual switch are just corroded and that is why they are working intermittently. You can remove the steering wheel, lock plate and 3 screws and pull the turn signal switch far enough out to clean it. Then use dielectric grease on the contacts so you don't have this problem again. Relatively easy to do and it will eliminate the possibility of that being a problem.

[hatzie]

Always check that the cluster and dash grounds are present and hooked up when you're getting really screwy seemingly UN-related electrical problems. If the column has been out then the grounds have probably been disturbed.
The 4-ways work so the turnsignal wires are probably in the right positions. Do the brake lights work? Yes the brake lights run through the turnsignal switch.

The Purple-Yellow splice is Bubba engineering. Those wires should normally go to the clutch starter interlock or the automatics' neutral safety switch. You can put the correct Delphi-Packard 56 female terminals back on the wires and plug em into the neutral safety switch on the bottom of the column. You may have to solder and shrink some wire extensions on to make em reach.

Make sure the PO put in the throttle kickdown switch and wiring for the TH400 "passing gear". It's fairly easy to do if he didn't.

[hatzie]

Switches are available and cheap.
STANDARD MOTOR PRODUCTS TW45 Turnsignal Switch Assembly is $17 on Rock Auto.
ACDelco 1997985 Turnsignal Switch Assembly is $23 on Amazon with Prime free shipping.

[ChevDog1]

kickdown switch has not been installed yet.

I do know that it needs one - just haven't got that far yet.

[motornut]

could the cluster have been changed?

[ChevDog1]

The cluster appears to be original. It has no gear indicator

[motornut]

wasn't sure if it would have had idiot lights ,maybe that was switched?
as the wires would need to move,to work right
I'd pull it and see if connections are right,and the copper paths are ok
here are the cluster and power connections about a foot from the plug