Steering column broke

[Lowered13]

Hello I just got told that my steering column broke does anyone know of a person in norther New England that can rebuild them? I was told it wasn't the ignition but a piece that connects to a pin. Is it repairable or do I need a new column? Wish I had more inormation on what broke but don't really know steering columns very well.

[slotard]

What is it doing or not doing that makes you say it's broken? When I had problems I ended up just getting a junkyard column after repeatedly failing to get my original to work.

[Lowered13]

When i go to turn the truck on the key goes all the way around without resistance, so i had a mechanic look at it and he said it wasn't the tumbler it was further into the column.

[slotard]

I believe the cylinder actuates a rod (push or pull, depending on the year) that goes to the electronics which are mounted farther down the column (to make it harder to hotwire).

If you have a decent junkyard around I'd suggest grabbing a tilt column, mine wasn't too hard to swap the cylinder in (no key at the junkyard) and install into my truck, and tilt is nice to have. Probably cheaper than having someone fix what's there now, I paid $50ish for the column (complete with wheel and shaft), $10 for the cylinder with keys from an auto parts store. Took me a few hours total (once I realized I needed to replace the column, I spent far too long trying to get the old one working).

[barry1982]

I would agree to grab a junk yard column..... Attempted repairs a couple times.... and as you get further into them... things get a little difficult.
Especially if it's a tilt column your working on....
If your junk yard column does not come with a key, you can install the key mechanism from your original. You don't have to dig too far into them to do this. You will need a little puller to remove the steering wheel. Can build one easily with a short piece of flatbar, and couple short 5/16 bolts. Watch out for the locking ring (might need a helper to push mechanism down while you fish out ring with a pick) I'm sure you can u Tube this procedure as well....

[hatzie]

The ignition switch rack and sector gears are pot metal so they can be broken. Most of the little internal bits and pieces can still be purchased from GM or AC Delco.

The 73-77 rack service kit is GM # 7819749 (rack and pushrod)
The 73-77 sector gear on the ignition cylinder is GM # 7805158

Page down to the CK tilt column in the 73-78 parts illustration catalog. This is the key for the section # to lookup the parts in the 73-78 Parts catalog.

The parts books are at the bottom of the 1973-1991 manuals post.

[slotard]

You can also rent a puller from many auto parts stores. I didn't need any help to do mine.

Later columns are somewhat different, but you can swap the whole thing. I guess 78 is when they switched from pushrod to pullrod (or is it the other way around?). I believe I swapped when I did mine, but because I did the whole column it wasn't a problem.

[Lowered13]

I found one at the junkyard and make one good one out of the two. I think it was the pull rod that broke thank you for the advice.

[slotard]

Glad to hear you managed to fix it. Steering columns sure aren't fun to work on.