What is the easiest way to change my turn signal? DO i have to pull my steering wheel off and take apart the whole steering column or is there an easier way. My turn signal has the wiper controls on it but no cruise. Any info at all would be greatly appreciated.

 

its simple. i did it a few months ago. all you do is find the wire that goes up the bottom of the steering column. It is in a white sleeve, and it plugs into a harness under the dash. Tie a string or piece of cable to it. Grasp the lever firmly and pull straight out. I didnt have any problems with it, it popped right out with no turning. After you have pulled it out, tie the new lever wire to the string and pull it back through the column and you are done.

The only difficulty i had was getting the wire back into the white plastic sleeve.

This is how it worked on my 88TA.

 

josh, thanks for the reply. The wire your talking about. what is its purpose? I dont have cruise control on my lever, just the wiper controls. I got the new lever in today and all that i see on it for mounting purposes is a metal rod the runs the length of the lever and at the end of it it has a indentasion all the way around the rod that looks like a pin of some-sort goes through to hold it. Is this how your looked? Is there a pin or prong you have to drepress for the lever to come out?

 

oh on my part, i missed the part where you said you didnt have cruise...thats what the wire is for.

That sounds like what mine looked like...there is like a little pin in there that has a tight spring on it, and thats what holds it in. you dont have to depress any lever, just give it a good pull and it will come right out.

make sure that the wiper is in the 'off' position when you pull it out, and make sure you dont turn it at all when pulling. put the new lever in the same way the old one came out. i believe that it only goes in one way.

 

i was thinkin of a way to explain how it holds the lever in...and i came up with an example. If you have ever used a socket extension with a socket on the end, you know that there is a little bearing in the extension that has a spring behind it. The socket is held on by the bearing pushing out on the indention on the inside of the socket, but it doesnt have enough force to keep the socket on when you are pulling on it.

This is generally the same concept, but i dont think that it's with a bearing, prolly some sort of clip

here is a pic of what the end of the lever looks like. is this what yours looks like?

 

If the old one is junk, a good trick is to clamp the metal rod with a set of vice grips and strike the vice grips with a small hammer. Pulling on the plastic part by hand often breaks the lever off. Sometimes they are stubborn to break loose. Don't forget the string or else you'll be taking apart the column to feed the wire back down. (If you have cruise I guess)

 

josh, yeah sorry bout the lil mix up. here are a few pics of the new one. mine looks like the same thing. indentsion around the rod, but what does the little flat part at the top do...or is that just there to help it guide into place?

 

another...

 

i think that flat part, like you said, is there to help it go in straight. when you pull the old one out, look in the sleeve and look for a place for that tab so it goes in correctly.

 

so that i dont mess this up when i do it..lol...Basically what your saying is grasp the lever firmly keeping it straight and just pull it and it should come out? and the new one should pop back into place, just line it up when you put it in?

 

that is correct. when i changed mine, i grapped it, and got a a good stance thinkin that it was going to come out really hard, but i ended up falling on my *** cuz it came out so easy.

yup, its that easy. GM didnt want their mechanics having to tear apart the steering columns when people came in to have them replaced, so they made it easy to do. (one thing that GM did RIGHT)

 

lol... ....man you got that right. last year i was putting a set of bass blockers on my front speakers...thinking it was going to be easy.....ha....yeah right. as i was taking the four screws outa the front part of the dash pad.....one fell down into the defroster vent.... .....ugh....great. Gm couldnt of put a safety screen on this ya know??.......5 hours with a fishtank hose duck-taped to a highpowered vacume cleaner and i got the screw out. lol...

 

whenever i do that now, i use a high power magnet right next to my socket.

i did that in my old bird, i didnt bother digging it out, i had another, i figured it wouldnt harm anything.

good luck with your lever, let me know hoe it goes.

-Josh