Flaming River Tilt Column FINALLY In!!!

[BrentBTK]

What an adventure. It all started with a CJ Pony Parts "Replacement" steering column. That was garbage with the wrong output shaft and no neutral safety switch provision. Back it went, in came the Flaming River tilt column. It had the proper output shaft, but no flat spot to bolt into the existing universal on the shaft. Yesterday, after almost setting the truck on fire, I ordered a Borgeson 3/4"DD to 3/4" 36 spline universal, figuring I'm going to have to cut the original end off the shaft. That worked great. Pics of the cut shaft and universal below. Alright! Cooking with gas! Not quite... Post to follow.

[BrentBTK]

Next, I connect the transmission linkage and get it all adjusted then install the shift lever and run the trans all the way down and back up. It comes to a hard stop at neutral and will go no farther. Now I'm losing it. After a week of being stuck, I finally get the column in and it won't shift back past neutral. Time to call Flaming River and hope for a miracle. After explaining the issue to the tech, he says I have 2 choices. I can call Summit and have them send me a new one, or I can send this one into Flaming River for repair. You gotta be kidding me. After explaining my displeasure at the entire situation, he put me on hold to go talk to the guys that build them. He came back on the line and explained that if I pull the shift lever out, I may be able to see a small ridge that may be slightly flared out. Perhaps I can get a screwdriver in there and "tap" in into place a bit. Okay, at this point I have nothing to lose, so what the hell. I'll jam a screwdriver in my brand new $1,000 column and bang on it. Son of a... it worked. Tapped on the ridge, polished on the shift lever a bit, and she shifts like a dream. Yes! Pics below! Ready to go! NOPE! Another post coming!

[BrentBTK]

So now, it's time to plug in the connector. WTF? It looks right, but it won't line up. I grab the one off the old column to compare the two, and the are just SLIGHTLY different on one end and the new one won't plug into the AAW plug. Okay. I pulled all the pins out of the new plug, inserted them all into the old plug, and in she went. Once that was handled, I finally got her all buttoned up and threw the old wheel back on for a test drive as I'm still waiting for the adapter for the new one. Everything works perfectly. What a journey! Pics of the plug and installed universal below.

[Thealien]

Glad you finally won.

[Rich72C10]

Holy cow and I thought dealing with a (actually two) bad Turn Signal Switch was bad!

[kev2809]

damn. this makes me want to rebuild my original instead of trying aftermarket lol

[GASoline71]

I installed an Ididit universal tilt column and when it came for the slot in the splined shaft for the cross bolt to go into, I just used a Dremel and ground out the area in the splines for the cross bolt to fit through. Then I was able to use my stock shaft from there to the steering box. The Ididit column also came with an adapter to mate up to the original wire harness.

Sorry you went through all that.

Gary

[BrentBTK]

Originally Posted by GASoline71

I installed an Ididit universal tilt column and when it came for the slot in the splined shaft for the cross bolt to go into, I just used a Dremel and ground out the area in the splines for the cross bolt to fit through. Then I was able to use my stock shaft from there to the steering box.

I debated using a dremel on the shaft and opted for the new universal instead. It seems much beefier and the old one was easy to cut off after I got over the fear, lol.

[BrentBTK]

Originally Posted by GASoline71

The Ididit column also came with an adapter to mate up to the original wire harness.

I should be clear, it came with the proper plug on the end. I just recently installed a new American Autowire wiring harness and had replaced the original plug with the one in the kit. So, technically the Flaming River plug didn't quite match the AAW wiring harness plug. I don't think that one was on them, lol.

[RPBurris]

I just started this journey yesterday. My FR column was delivered a few weeks ago and went with the specific model for our trucks. I did not get an adaptor for their wiring harness to the stock GM harness. Did you reuse the boot/seal from your old column and the seal retainer ring?

[BrentBTK]

Originally Posted by RPBurris

I just started this journey yesterday. My FR column was delivered a few weeks ago and went with the specific model for our trucks. I did not get an adaptor for their wiring harness to the stock GM harness. Did you reuse the boot/seal from your old column and the seal retainer ring?

I did. I took the old column apart, slid them off, and put them on the new one.

[Lethal Tendencies]

Make sure you use thread lock on that U-joint for the steering shaft. I bought an adapter harness for my column harness that didn't fit from LMC. Ended up cutting all the wires and soldering them together.