Shoddy Steering Column Restoration - I Was Burned!

Caveat Emptor!

Those words could never be more true. At least in this case. Last year, I purchased a restored floor shift steering column for my project Nova from a vendor other folks on this board use. As many of you know, the car is a very low original mile piece (9300 or so miles) I’m using for the basis of a Day 2 car. Once the column arrived, I shot a few photos of it for a magazine article (sourcing the outfit that supplied the column) and put it back in the box it came in. Last week, I took it out to detail it.

When I looked at the column, it seemed to me that the rag joint flange was quite a bit closer to the lower bearing than in my original column shift column. Sure it enough it was. Then I started to take a far closer look at the column. Here’s what I found when I took it apart:

This is a look the two shafts side by side (my original column shaft at the top and the “new” floor shift job on the bottom):



Close up you can see the “new” shaft is definitely shorter. How much? Just under 5/16-inch. There’s no way the rag joint can “stretch” that far.



Here’s a look at how they “fixed” the collapsed shaft. It was ground down and peened so that it more or less worked. Nice. Too bad they didn’t know how to use a tape measure …L-O-L.



On the flange end, they didn’t bother to clean the corrosion before the shaft was rattle can “restored”.



When I took the “new” column apart, the lower bearing was dry. Before I reassembled it, I lubed it with the grease GM recommends. It’s nothing trick: White Lithium Soap Grease.



Upstairs, I discovered the shift tube (interlock tube) had been greased with what looked like tractor grease. Not only that, it was full of grit. So I cleaned it up and re-lubed with the correct grease.



I had to dig out 40+ years of dry white lithium grease and tractor grease and grit out of the shift (interlock) shroud. I re-greased it.



Here’s a look at the inside of the signal lamp/switch housing. You can see just how “restored” it really is.



This is what the signal lamp/switch housing looks like on the other side. As you can see, there’s nothing restored to it at all. I suspect they pulled the shaft, tried to fix the collapsed segment, buttoned it up and rattle canned the whole works.



Here’s the thrust cup out of the “restored” column. Like much of the new restored column, it wasn’t touched. The black grease is full of grit.



And the final touch of quality is this: The signal lamp/switch housing is dented. Nice.

[img]http://i942.photobucket.com/albums/a...um/column5.jpg[/img]

At the moment, I’m waiting to see what becomes of this. I contacted the outfit I bought it from and we’ll see if they pony up and fix the problem (I’ll keep you posted). I’m hoping they’ll stand behind their product, and hopefully no one else will get stung by this kind of shoddy workmanship.

Any thoughts? I’d appreciate your comments.

Wayne