Broken Turn Signal Lever and Questions

[Slonaker]

Ever since I bought my truck I have had to push down a little too hard on my turn signal lever to signal a left turn. It was one of those things I planned to look into after the bigger stuff was fixed. Yesterday I signaled a left turn, and snapped the end off the lever. The portion that controls the cruise control and the wipers is now dangling by the wiring.

1. What was wrong in the column that was making it so hard to signal a left turn? What part, if any, was bad? How much will it cost to replace it, and how do I do it?

2. How much is a new stalk going to cost me? I have seen one in the "HELP" section at the auto parts stores that looks like the right one for about $30. Is it any good, or should I go with a dealer part?

3. Will I have to pull the wheel, disassemble part of the column, and fish about 5 feet of wiring through the column to replace it? Since it controls wipers, washers, and cruise, I assume there are quite a few wires involved. I have never worked on a steering column before, and want to know what I'm getting myself into.

Any tips anyone can offer would be appreciated.

Slonaker

[CRRoy71]

When I replaced mine, I pulled the wheel. I seem to remember someone after that saying that you can do it without removing the wheel, but I am not sure on that (maybe they will jump in here). You are going to have to "fish" the wires down through the column. I do remember on mine, that it made it a whole lot easier after I took out the four bolts under the dash that held the column up, and gave it a liitle more playing room. Other than that, it was fairly simple.

Hope this helps,

[8t5Silverado]

I don't know for sure, but I think you have to remove the wheel. because there is a screw on the end of the stalk that is only accessed when the wheel is out of the way.

[Slonaker]

I seem to remember there being some discussion a while back about whether or not a certain year was held in by screws or if it just pulled out. Mine still works, sort of, so I'm not ready to start yanking on it yet to find out.

CRRoy71:

What did yours cost, and where did you get it?


8t5Silverado:

Have you seen the Turbo Regal videos yet on www.turborealtor.com. I particularly like this one:

http://www.turborealtor.com/vids/redbuick.asf

Slonaker

[8t5Silverado]

That's cool.

My avatar is misleading. I have a turbo, but it's not a Buick.

I wouldn't mind finding a T-Type, though. My wife hates them and thinks they are boats for old men...kind of like my truck.

[CRRoy71]

I got mine from LMC. Part# 34-0799 $79.95

Turn signal lever-chrome BLZ JIM 84-91
w/intermittent wiper

[Russell]

Hey Slonaker!

You're gonna have to tear into the column to do the job properly. It isn't tough to do by any means (pulling the snapring off the locking plate is the hardest part) and you can easily make all the tools you need with a couple bolts, washers, and a peice of iron.

1. You're gonna have to take off the steering wheel, pay special attention to how the horn was put together though! If you don't have a wheel puller, find a fairly thick peice of steel and drill some holes in it that line up with the bolt holes in the steering wheel for pulling it. Also drill a nice thick hole in the center that is big enough to get the threaded part of the steering shaft though. Now take some long bolts that fit into the two little holes on the column, and a nice thick bolt with two nuts that fit onto it and stick them through the middle hole that lines up with the steering shaft. Stick a nut onto either side of the puller so the shaft can go nowhere but down when you tighten the center bolt. Just to be sure that you don't damage the steering shaft, either get a washer that fits flush with the bottom of the bolt, or stick another nut on the bottom so that there is a mostly flat surface pushing against the steering shaft. Once you've got everything in and fairly snug, tighten the middle bolt and the wheel will easily pop off, just unbolt everything after pulling the wheel off and set it aside.

2. Now this has gotta be the toughest part in my opinion. You gotta compress the locking plate so you can get that little snap ring that holds it all in off the steering shaft. Take that same peice of metal you used before, and drill another big hole in it so that one of the bolts on the side of the other puller will be lined up with a metal part of the locking plate, then drill yet another small hole on the other side that lines up with another part of the locking plate on the opposite side. Now stick your homemade tool onto the steering shaft, and put the big bolt that held the steering wheel on before overtop to secure it to the steering shaft. Take two bolts with two nuts for each and stick them through the sides like you did with the center peice when pulling the steering wheel. Stick a washer at the bottom of each bolt so it has a wide, even pushing surface. Slowly tighten both bolts until the plate has been compressed enough to get at the snap ring. Use two flat screwdrivers to get the ring off, then slowly back both bolts off until there is no more pressure on the tool, then undo the shaft bolt, and remove your tool. You can then pull the locking plate off, and the rotating horn assembly from beneith. You should now be able to see the white plastic part that needs to be replaced.

3. There are three screws holding it in, just undo each screw (you need to move the signal light setup to get at all the bolts underneith) and pull it out after undoing the signal light arm (if it is still attached in any way, there is a screw that holds it on), the emergency flasher button, and the harness underneith. Carefully pull the harness up the column (you may need to unbolt a couple things down beneith, but its easy enough to figure out just by looking at it)

4. Now take all the tools you used to get as far as you have now, and the white peice, go to the wrecking yard, and spend 5 bucks buying a new white switch thing, installation is the opposite of removal.

Give yourself at least a couple of hours to do this the first time around (first time I did it, took almost two days, now I can rebuild a whole tilt column in a couple of hours). Good luck, and hopefully this helps you out a bit and possibly saves you a couple dollars from having to buy anything you don't need (seems unlikey that the signal light lever is the part that broke, while those white plastic peices are super fragile on the other hand)

Edit: I'm talking about the setup that has the signal light arm for signal lights only, and possibly cruise like mine has, if you have one of those wiper arms setups, or headlight switch setups, I dunno how much it would differ from my initial tutorial, should be fairly close though

[swervin ervin]

Just to change the turn signal lever, you don't have to take the steering wheel off. They pull out. Nothing else holds them in. But with cruise, you must pull the wire through. So the best way is to tie a wire to your old cruise cable before pulling it out. This way, you can simply hook the new one to this wire and pull it back through.

But, the part about it being hard to move makes me think you need a new turn signal switch. If this is the case, you will have to remove the wheel.

[Russell]

Yeah, I work with an older truck, the signal light arm is attached to that plastic thing inside of the column with a small screw

[Slonaker]

Is the turn signal switch different from the cam? It sounds like it is... The cam is the white plastic piece, right? The cam is available in auto parts store, I think. Is the switch (assuming it is a separate part)?

I just called the local dealer. The lever is $124! Assuming they gave me the correct part number, gmpartsdirect.com gets about $75 for it shipped. I need to check the auto parts stores and see if it is available that route.

That price is crazy. I'm tempted to pull one from a trashed column in a junkyard, although I am afraid I'll be getting someone else's junk.

Slonaker

EDIT:

Thanks for the instructions, Russel. I was hoping it was simpler, but nothing on my truck ever is. I need to dig up Brandon's link to the instuctions for tightening up the bolts in loose columns. I think it shows pretty much the sequence I need to follow with pictures for those of us who like to look at the pretty pictures first. I already have a steering wheel puller, and I recently picked up a cheap tool for compressing that plate thingy (stop me if I'm getting too technical... ). It was only about $5 at Harbor Freight Tools, and I figured I would need it eventually to fix that stiff turn signal lever. I was hoping not to have to use it so soon.

[swervin ervin]

Slonaker, if you can get parts at the dealer wholesale, I would check there before buying from LMC. I removed my cruise when I went with the Pro-Comp gauges, since it had a mechanical speedo and no way to hook the cruise up. Anyway, I changed the turn signal lever to one without the cruise on it, just regular wipers, in chrome. It cost me $16.03 at the dealer. I know one with cruise will be more, but I doubt it will be $79.00. Just something to think about.

[Slonaker]

The best I have been able to get out of the dealer was a 15% discount. Two other dealers refused to give me any discount at all. I really tried a few months ago when I needed that $75 oil pan gasket.

You would think they would be better off selling me a part at a discount than they would be selling me nothing, but they don't see it that way.

Slonaker

[swervin ervin]

Hmmmm....sounds like you have a bunch of tightwads at the dealer. I get a 25% discount over list. If you could make friends with the parts department manager, I'm sure he would do better. I made sure to learn his name real quick and be real nice to all of them guys. After Charles, the manager started giving me whoesale price, they all did.

When I first started buying stuff over there, they charged me list price. I quickly asked, hey, can you do me any better. I would go to get a part and they would have to order it so it would be there the next day. They would make me pay for the part before they would order it. Not anymore. I can call and tell them what I want and not have to put up a penny. A nice bunch of guys working there. So many of these folks are pricks. I guess though with me buying probably $3,000 or more worth of stuff for all my vehicles, they felt they would give me a break.

[MylilBowTie]

I feel for you, having to feed the wire back down the column. If you have an autozone near you can rent all the tools to make it easier. I tried to look for website that has the tilt repair with all the pictures but didn't find it. I just replaced everything you are about to replace and its not fun. If you get stuck as and I'll see what I can come up with.

Before you pull the wire up after its disconnected (and you will have to). Get some very thin wire or strong fishing line and tie it around the connector so that it pulls the string into the column as the wire gets pulled out. That will make it somewhat easier to get the wires back down the column. I had some wire that is looks like floss and it helped out a little in getting the wires though the column.

[apstguy]

I believe this is the site you are looking for: http://home.t-online.de/home/O_Scholz/steering.html

[Slonaker]

That's the one. Thanks.

Slonaker

[8t5Silverado]

fixing the tilt is no fun at all...