A couple ?'s on van tilt columns

[t76turbo]

The truck I bought had a tilt column in it. I assume it's a van column.

It has a few issues.

-Doesnt light up
-The indicator that moves with the shift lever is broken off flush.
-Hole for pin holding the shift lever is wallowed out.

The gear indicator doesn't light up so I started looking for a bulb or fiber optic. From what I read about the van columns, there is a gray wire that powers the indicator.

I had seen the gray wire coiled up under the dash so I fed 12 volts using my PowerProbe III and got no light. The PowerProbe connects to positive and neg on your battery and will tell you if you are probing a ground or hot wire. It did not indicate either. Almost like the wire is completely isolated.

I pulled the little housing with the gear letters on it and didnt see any kind of bulb under it.

Also, the actual indicator must have gotten broken off and was painted over.

Can someone provide some guidance on what I should check next or what I can replace/rebuild?


If I cant get this thing working I may eventually replace it with an aftermarket column. The pin in the shift lever has wallowed the hole so I assume thats just one more issue to try and fix.

On a side note about this column, there is no neutral safety switch at the bottom of the column. So I have no idea how he got past that. But it's working.