Ok, I remember this question popped up sometime last year, but I canna find it so I'm going to ask again. Sorry.

I have a seriously perverted column in my GTA now (my son had a bit too much fun - long story. A friend of mine has a column out of a standard. Both cars are '89 GTAs with Steering column controls. I have no problems swapping out the ignition key cylinder. Do I need to do any repinning or is it a plug and play operation (not withstanding the cylinder swap)? Thanks guys!

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"To provoke dreams of terror in the slumber of prosperity has become the moral duty of literature"

-Ernst Fischer

 

RD,

Most of the columns from manual trans cars have the funky little lock leeever that must be depressed ala Harry Houdini to get the cylinder to the LOCK position. The rest should be a pretty direct swap as long as you're not talking about a column shift unit.

Is the donor car a VATS car, too?

If there are any other difficulties, you might be able to swap the upper bowl and associated parts, saving the original column tube, wiring, and mountings.

Lemme guess..."driving" the car in the garage, beating up the lock plate and pin?

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Later,
Vader
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"Fear is how I fall, Confusing what is real..."
Adobe Acrobat Reader

 

Good guess, unfortunately, when I told him it was now broken, he went in later with my 3lb. sledge and a screwdriver to "fix" it. He likes tools too much me thinks.

Both cars are GTAs, both '89, both VATS etc. etc. A problem I did run into is that since the steering wheel is odd, my regular puller won't fit. Always something!!

 

OK, finally got a chance to work on the GTA (too much work to do on the bloody house!!). Pulled the column out and here is the problem... well the first is trying to figure out how the heck to explain this, so let me ramble and please excuse the vague descriptions. Picture the entire column after you yank it. There is one bolt holding the entire assembly together. The main column and the u-joint section. The part I am having problems with is where they join. In my column, the section at the end of the column that the u-joint joins together with is sticking out apx. 4 inches. On the other column it is recessed all the way in (prob. from shipping). The column sections are the same length and the steering wheel hubs are both apx. the same length. What gives? Do I have to drive out the bloody thing (wouldn't this make the hub shorter?)? I started taking apart the old column and this thing looks like one tube that goes all the way to the tilt mechanism. What the hell am I missing?

 

ttt

 

Were you able to make it? I am having the same problem right now... And Im in a bit of hurry :P

 

PB Blaster some heat and some muscle. And a PM would have gotten a quicer response. I just happened to see this tonight by pure luck.

 

I did not make it. Somehow it seems like my new column is an inch shorter then my old one... I think so.. I dont know.. Maybe this intermediate shaft the connects to the steering box has shortened while I was using a lot of force trying to connect coulumn to u-joint (it was so damn hard to fit that I ended with sanding steering column shaft :P )
I have no more ideas.. And my car sleeps :P