Steering Column Interchangability

[Shant]

I'm mid stream in my roadster restoration and, I'm looking at some ways to increase its safety when it goes back together. Can anyone tell me if the 68 and later steering columns fit an early 67 without modification? I understand that the 68 and later have a colapsable column.

Thanks,
Shant

[S Allen]

It has been done but I have no actual experience with the project. The 68 and above have the recirculating ball steering box as well while the early steering boxes are worm gears. You could just change out the steering column side by ordering a custom u-joint from these people http://www.borgeson.com/ Or you could put the whole shebang in from a 68, 69 or 70 including the steering box, steering shaft with u joint, steering column support, idler and idler arm. The recirculating ball box is supposedly more precise and possibly a faster ratio. I do not know this for a fact though as all of my cars are of the early variety.

Steve

[spl310]

From what I understand, you have to do mods. The column housing is larger in diameter than the early one. The turn signal switch may not be bolt in compatible (don't recall for sure). The recirculating ball steering appeared in mid 69. The 68 and early 69 had the same steering box as the early cars. Changing it over is not simple bolt in, but it seems to be fairly simple as mods go.

Sid

[S Allen]

Thanks for setting it straight Sid. I am not good at answering high windshield questions.

Steve

[SLOroadster]

I think the 68s had the old style steering box but on the 69s starting at about SRL-9000 they switched. I have the new box on #09380. Swaping boxes is a pain because there are different mounting points between the two. I think you might be able to use a 67.5 colum on an earlier car however (I think they have a collapseable column but I am not sure.)
Will

[spl310]

Steve,

Glad to help!

On the 67.5, the column is still the solid "death spear" that the early cars had. The collapsable column did not show up until 1968. The only difference on the 67.5 column from the early columns is that the steering column lock is mounted on it.

Sid

[Ivin]

Hi-

Since I am still learning, ..........to summarize......one could then swap out just the steering column off say a 1969 (collapsible type) and retrofit it to a 1966 with perhaps just using that custom u-joint? If the old signal assembly would not fit, would a 1969 signal assembly work?

Just curious? You never know what one will need to do in the future.

Thanks,

Ivin