Van Tilt- Whats involved to install?
 

Looked in faqs section and did not see anything.. what exactly has to be done to make the fit right?

thanks
jakeslim

Couple of things....

1) Relocate the neutral safety switch. See HERE for the FAQ on how to do that. I used that FAQ personally, and it walked me right through the process without any problems.

2) Remove van rubber boot and retainer ring from bottom of column and install truck rubber boot and firewall retainer ring onto van coulmn. I always slightly bend the van shifter arm deal a little until the new retainer ring will slide over, then bend it back straight.

3) Bolt the column into the trucks dash, just like the old stock one. Reuse original hardware.

4) Shorten the intermediate shaft. It's the shaft that goes from the steering column to the steering box. It is collapsable. There are two plastic pins that hold it together. Drill through these pins and bang on the end of the shaft to collapse it some.

The van column will stick a little further out of the firewall than the truck one did. You shorten this shaft to compensate. Just whack it a little at a time until it will fit in between the column and box.

5) Last item, is some van coulmns use a curved electrical connector. If so, you need to buy the adapter harness from GM. It's a little thing that connects the curved van plug to the straight truck plug. Cost is under 10 bucks.

Forgot the picture.

This is the intermediate shaft which you shorten to allow the longer vn column to fit.

To add to TX Firefighter's instructions, the light in the shift indicator has a gray wire with a female end on it that plugs into the fuse panel at the instrument light location.

Jim

PS: The link "here" works for me and is very good for the neutral switch relocation.

when I shortend my lower shaft, I just put on a pair of gloves and whacked the bottom part straight down on the cement floor a few times, didn't have to use the drill. Maybe I was just lucky. Good way to vent some of the inevitable frustration invoved with these projects.

cool. I assume the "on the floor" would just be to connect the rounded plug with a straight adapter, then hammer int at the base to right length. Seems easy. Thanks, PS, this should be a FAQ item. :flag:

Thank you for this post. Just located a good van column myself.

couple of questions... where can you get the truck ring and boot?

do you have to shorten the shaft?
and all you have to is drill in the plastic pins and knock it against the floor?


sounds good to me. i already have one... just need to paint it and install new wiring inside of it

dinnut, you get the truck ring and boot off your old column you are pulling out of your truck.
Yes, you have to shorten the shaft...no way around it. I also have never drilled anything out. I normally put a block of wood on the cement to keep from chipping it, but yeah, just slap it down and it'll shorten on its own.

You get the ring and boot off of your old non-tilt truck column. New boots are available if yours is beat.

Yes, you have to shorten the shaft. The van tilt is several inches longer than a truck tilt.

Read my description and see picture I posted about shortening the shaft. You can do it in under a minute.

Crap, out typed by Andy!

Great info...explained well. Thanks! I'll be putting one of these in my 68 in the next few weeks.

Tx Firefighter,

Andy is quick!

Jim

shaft
 

I had to take the intrmediate shaft apart and clean up rust and crud for shaft to slide and i cut some off the bottom so it would have room to collapse and fit.

You'll need to locat the intermidiate shaft off a 69 - 72 truck. The 67/68 were not equipped with this feature.

I may have beat you to the post tex...but I am anything but a fast typer. A one fingered blind man with an old mechanical type writer can out type me.
I just started typing my post 20 min before you did. ;)

Andy.......The 3-on-the-tree column out of my 68 has the collapsable shaft. Do I have an odd-ball, or do ya think it was replaced at some point
:confused:

Hmmm, maybe it was 67 only...or 67 and early 68... I've seen a couple 68's that had a solid shaft. :confused:

my 68 has a colapsable shaft too, just FYI

Andy, don't beat yourself up too much. I have a 68 with the solid shaft originally. It must be a hit or miss deal on 68's.

phew..I thought I was wrong...I guess I was mistaken. ;) J/K
68 seems to be trasitional for a few things.

What year vans are you getting columns from?

I had always thought that the 67 frames were not indented so they would easily accept a power steering gear, and the 68-on were. I noticed AFTER I tore down my 68 that my frame wasn't indented. So I think you are right, 68's were transitional.

Up until the mid-80's the vans still had the ignition on the dash. Some may have had cruise control on the turn lever, but that can be swapped out.

I'm pretty sure my 68' has a colapsable column. My 67' has one also but that may have been something that a PO put in themselves since it already has a van tilt installed.

73-81 and early 82. the early 70s ones have the horse shoe concetor still and the later ones have a straight conector. and the later ones have a shorter gear selector so they wont stick out as far with a small wheel

72 actually 68w/sbc406.

well since i have never even seen a van tilt and am just getting the info from whats been posted and i remember, one year off aint bad. all the info is from you and tx pretty much.

I get my tilt columns from other vehicles.

Around here, vans are pretty picked over for columns. Everyone knows about them.