Ol John Lees New turn signal Switch and home made puller

[Sharps40]

My hard and fast rule with old stuff is not to fix it if it ain't broke. However, no turnsignals unless holding the switch up/down hard is broke enough. In addition, the steering wheel was crooked. Time to pull it all, replace the worn out switch and straighten up the wheel.

Minimal tools and too cheep to buy a steering wheel puller for a single job so first job is rooting around in the junk box for scrap steel and bolts to make a field expedient wheel puller. Yank the positive battery cable and grabbed some tools.



The nearly free, recyclable field expedient wheel puller. 3/4 turn and the wheel pops off.



An assortment of small screws, washers, bellville springs and stuff later, a bare shaft....one each non energy absorbing type.



All the old guts and covers and shifter bowl laid out on the floor with the original switch and wiring still threaded in there.



After cleaning up 47 years of gunk with cleaner wax, thread the new switch thru the column covers and bowls.



Here the column cover and shifter bowl is reinstalled. So far so good....or so I thought.



Installed the switch and hooked up the wiring for a test run. I have good turn signals but the horn blows continuously....back apart, several times. I just couldn't figure it, all plastic, where is the short....traced all the wiring and I finally found the pinch in the horn wire. Fixed it up with heat shrink tubeing and put it all back on for the 5th time, 3 hours into a 10 minute job....GoodWife Sharps is there helping and thank goodness....she kept me calm and from throwing tools and resisting the urge to cut away the metal column where I was sure the short was at. I looked at the part over and over and was convinced, even though the part is the same from the 60s clear thru the late 80s or early 90s, there had to be a difference. Finally routed the wire properly, after crimping and repairing it again and got it all back together. Horn works only when I want it to, turn signals work just right....won't shift. Darn....bound the linkage. So, under the car, grab the reverse rod, wiggle it and back up to the cab to reassemble it all for the seventh time!



Wheel back on. Function tests again, gettin tired of hearing the horn blow but it and the signals are working right and, the wheel seems to be lined up just right. Guess its time for a test ride.



So this 10 minute job ran from 11 AM to 230 PM....no time left for Robo-Table today but thats okay, Sonic is calling.