Steering Column

[Ironhorse]

Changed my original 17" Saddle colored wheel to smaller '89 Suburban wheel. Got the horn working altho I apparently need to replace the horn itself. Sounds rather "anemic", changed the tone control on side of horn but still the sound sucks. Need to hit the parts yards and find a dual horn setup like I once had on a '69 Impala. That one made its' presence known when it sounded. Question I have is on the upper and lower column bearings. Have what seems to me as excessive "slop" in column and want to change the bearings. How much of a hassle is that and where can I get the bearings? Usuall parts houses or is that a GM part only? Any help is appreciated.

[barn9]

Hi Gary, how you doin' over there? Afraid I'm not much help on the steering column question, but I can relate to the anemic horn syndrome. I have dual horns, but only one works, the other one quit a couple months ago and is dead according to the imperfect scientific evaluation performed upon it by me, the electrical moron. How's the rest of the interior work going? Gonna have to get a pic posted on here and make these guys drool here one of these days, he-hee! And don't forget to show everyone some pics of the gas tank relocate, you did a nice job on that too! Ol' Yukon's gettin' fired up and ready on the engine swap, you may have to go up with me and help supervise! Cya!

[Lippyp]

In my humble experience dead horns are usually just down to dirty connections. If you give the terminals and grounds a good clean up and replace the connectors on the end of the wires, back the adjustor in and out a few times and give everything in sight a good dose of WD40 it usually does the trick. (They are cheap to buy new however)

[JimKshortstep4x4]

On your steering column play, before you remove the column, check the spring and washer set up on the lower end. Sometimes the spring breaks or the spring and washer gets left off. The spring preloads the bearings and eliminates the free play.

I assume that the spring on the top end is in place.

If the spring/washer setup is ok, then you will want to remove the column and disassemble it completely, cleaning it up before reassembly. The parts board will usually have someone with bearings for sale. I would recommend getting a picture of the column as is in the service manuals if you have not done this before.

Jim

[Ironhorse]

Hi Larry. Since I posted last night I made a stop at a parts yard in Wichita and made my score on a dual horn setup. $10 and I pull, which is cool. Not much to it to get it out. Had factory dual harness and plenty of wire to make my connection. Had to do a little "beat to fit, paint to match" body and fender but went in the original mount hole with using a longer bolt. Hooked right in to the original horn wire. Definetly a traffic horn now. Got to work on my stereo set-up for sure. Still sucks big time driving with no tunes except me singing and I couldn't carry a tune in a bucket! Need to figure out how to mount my 6x9's and planning on going with a dual speaker set-up in the dash. Anyone know if the Kenwood 120 watt set-up that the various venders sell is a good option? Planning on using Pioneer tri-axials with 150 watts and a small amp along with the dual dash speaker. AM/FM Sanyo cassette with a bi-amp set-up with two adjustable shafts. Just had this truck painted and don't want to cut the dash! Will have to look at the shaft for the tension spring mentioned. Always something on this ol' truck but still like it. At least I can work on this one.