Steering column compatibility?

[sethv]

Hey guys. A good friend of mine has a 1981 Chevy K10 with tilt steering and the column is bad and needs replaced. I can get her a column out of a 70's truck but I was wondering if there were any major wiring differences between 70s and 80s trucks?

Rebuilding the tilt column isn't an option, she just wants a different one (And the one I can get is not tilt so we won't have to worry about it breaking lol)

Thanks guys.

[c10sport]

If it's out of a 1978 (I think) or earlier truck, you'll also have to have the lower steering shaft as they are different.

My book is showing that it will work fine otherwise.

[C15_Sierra]

Mine might have just been an oddball, because it was originally a 3 on the tree truck that was converted to a column shift auto way before I bought it...but I had to swap intermediate shafts when I installed my floor-shift column.

The auto-column-shift (with tilt, I might add) came with a splined intermediate shaft, whereas the floor-shift-non-tilt column I installed came from a 1980 Chevy K10 Custom Deluxe. My truck is a 1980 C15 Sierra. The floor shift column was a rectangular notch with a thru bolt. Who knows out of what year my column shift column was out of, but it definitely wasn't the factory one

Not knowing this at first when I bought the column, I later pulled the intermediate shaft from an '86 K20 that fit fine

So, I'd pull the intermediate shaft just in case. The wiring between my columns fit perfectly. The ignition switches move in different directions when you turn the key depending if you have tilt...found that out when I tried to swap the newer-looking and already-tested ignition switch with the unknown, sitting-for-15-years floor shift switch. But all the connectors are the same

[c10sport]

My truck had a later tilt column (1984-91) installed, I used a Jeep steering shaft instead of the original shaft. tightened up my steering a lot.