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Too bad it’s a 400! I have a really nice set of (1956) Patrician doors.

and too bad I am in the middle of Kentucky with little chance of finding a parts car near by. I'll see if I can repair this on first.

Also, when I disassembled the doors a couple years ago I remember that the drivers side had some extra metal rods installed under the interior door cover and I wonder if that was due to the stress points that Howard mentioned. I posted about the extra metal so its in this blog someplace.

Fixed that nasty bent section of the door with my improvised body tool and I found one of those stress cracks in the door that Howard warned me about, lucky me.

I started cleaning up the steering column. Should I break it down? I do have a little experience with GM steering columns on my old square body. I don't want to replace that wiring plug until I know if it's necessary. It certainly needs to be repainted.

Currently working on:
1. sanding the body for paint this spring.
2. Dashboard rewire.
3. doors repair
4. Steering column cleaning

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Looking really good. Can't wait to see the body in paint once spring arrives.

-Kevin

I tore into the steering column some today and did not like what I found.

Removed the steering indicator thingamabob and on the underside I found a piece of wire wrapped about it. It may be from the factory but I don't think its to spec. It look like someone tried to "beef" it up to due to some play in the shift.

Also there is a broken tab under the upper section of the column. The tab appears to be some sort of stop for the gear shift. Lots of metal shaving in there as well.
I am looking for advice. Should I continue to tear it down or just seek out a replacement.

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  SteeringIndicator2.jpg (41.84 KB)


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  MetalShavings.jpg (56.17 KB)

The wire is definitely something to fill a space -- probably due to wear in the slot or could be some wear in the linkage farther down that is allowing slop in the lever and they tried to get a better alignment to the indicator letters. That also appears to be the original version of the indicator clamp which was superseded by one having allen screws gripping the shaft for a tighter grip on the indicator wire.

I believe the wear on the other piece is due to the operator not lifting the lever enough when changing gears. There should be two stops requiring the operator to make a definite motion to lift the lever and clear the stops when going into reverse or park. They were designed to prevent accidental shifting into either gear -- particularly reverse -- if the lever was bumped or pushed too hard.

Here is a photo posted a few weeks ago by another owner of a 55 (whose name I can't remember) showing the revised indicator clamp.

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  clamp.jpg (128.85 KB)

The metal shavings are due to the flange being softer than the shifter lever. I got a NOS flange from Kanter to replace my worn one. Much of the wear on the flange was due to the shift lever not being able to move freely and pull back far enough to clear it. The spring for the shift lever is located at the other end of the steering column below the linkage to the transmission. While there is a grease fitting, mine had obviously been missed as it was frozen. I had to completely disassemble the column. Once cleaned, greased, and a new flange installed, everything works well.

I wonder if someone wrapped the wire around the shift indicator part because of the slop in the gear shift not realizing that the slop was really due to the wear and tear in the upper section itself.
I'll do some looking this week. I'd prefer to replace only the upper sections that I need and not have to replace the whole steering column if possible.

I would expect that they had no idea about the broken tab but they could ram the shifter too far and they thought that the travel was limited by the pointer. Then wrapping the pointer would keep would stop the shifter travel a little sooner. Is there a lot of play between the pointer tab and the hole in the tube and is it the tab or the hole that is worn?

I got those holes that were punched in the bottom of the door. Also covered them with a little body filler. Not going to spend much more time making the bottom of the door pretty.

Almost have the steering column completely dissembled. Getting the gear shifter out is the hardest part and trying not to break something. Mike Dulinski is already digging up some replacement parts for me.

Snow and very cold starting tomorrow. Probably will not be doing anything in the shop for a few days.

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  SideHolePAach.jpg (68.85 KB)


  HowToRemoveGearShift.jpg (55.45 KB)