Steering colum wiring

[Wile E]

I found a tilt colum out of a manual El Camino, I know it will bolt up. Just not sure about the wiring harness, My 'bu was an auto. Any troubles with this swap?

 

[Toner283]

The wiring should clip together no issues. If your car is an auto I would sell the stick column & get an auto tilt column & pocket the difference. Factory tilt columns for manual g bodies are rare & worth $$$ to guys who are looking for them. You should be able to buy a tilt column for an auto for $50-100 depending on whether it has a multi switch or not and whether it is column shift or not. The tilt column from a manual car should get you $150-250 depending on condition (and if it is a factory piece). Might even get more on fleabay. Just an idea. I would like to find one myself but sadly no spare $$ right now.

 

[Wile E]

Yeah, I picked it up knowing they are rare, paid 25.00 at the salvage yard. Looks like 3 of the connecters match my original colum. The manual colum has 1 other wiring socket that mine does not have, not sure what it is for. The colum is in remarkable condition. Just don't want a melt down cause I made a simple mistake.

 

[Doober]

Yeah, I picked it up knowing they are rare, paid 25.00 at the salvage yard. Looks like 3 of the connecters match my original colum. The manual colum has 1 other wiring socket that mine does not have, not sure what it is for. The colum is in remarkable condition. Just don't want a melt down cause I made a simple mistake.

Sounds like the deal I got. Neither of mine have the key-lock thing (keeps the cylinder from turning all the way back & locking the column when you turn the ignition off), but I have a tilt, and a non-tilt column (non-tilt was after my original column was broken :x), but I scored the tilt column for $20. The column shop I bought it from is slightly old school (one of the guys builds rat rods for a hobby, he's the one that sold me the column), the owner said he could replace the column-shift collar with a floor-shift one.

 

[Toner283]

Can you post a pic of the extra socket?

 

[winditup57]

I just picked up a black floor shift tilt column at a swap meet for $75. It is in great condition, but it is out of a newer car with cruise and delay wipers. Hopefully I can make it work with my 80

 

[Wile E]

My mistake, the extra socket/wiring is on my old auto colum, not the manual one. Here's the pic. Whats that socket for?

Here's the manual colum I will be using,

 

[t5montecarlo]

The extra switch on your automatic column is for your reverse lamps.

 

[Toner283]

And the park/neutral start switch. Standard cars have a clutch switch instead of a neutral start switch and the reverse light switch is in the trans.

 

[Wile E]

Thanks for the info