Shortening Steering column

[Geezer]

Just to add my .02, because I couldn't add to the stickey, here’s what I encountered collapsing the column on my 67 GMC with non-tilt and auto on the column.
My lower column didn’t have what I would call “pins”. What was in it was the same plastic that is used in OEM U joints. After I removed the column I put it in a vice and cleaned the paint off the upper section so it would slide into the lower piece easier. Then I heated the areas around the injected plastic and most of it squirted out . Then I went over it again with a wire wheel and let it cool slightly bedore spraying it with some WD40. A few thumps with a plastic dead blow hammer collapsed it all the way.


I installed the column back in the truck and discovered that the neutral safety switch was in the way of the column moving in more than about an inch. So I pulled it back out… Back in the vice I took measurements, put a new blade on the die grinder, and figured it was going to be a pain to relocate the neutral safety switch. Then I had a flash! (even if it was in the seat of my pants) I could move the column in far enough to have the switch on the other side of the firewall!


This should work by trimming the support bracket a little like this.


I put the column back in, set it where I wanted it, then rotated it aganst the protrusion sticking down from the brake hanger to scrape it where I needed a notch for it. Then I pulled it back out again and drilled a hole to fit instead of grinding a piece out .


The rotating piece rubs on the instrument some and I’ll probably have to trim it a little and the indicator may have to be trimmed as well. The only problem this seems to have created is that instruments have to be in place before seating the column.