Thread: Converting Chev tilt column to floor shift

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O.K. guys---This is how it went. I had a perfectly good Chev tilt column with a column mounted shifter, that I wanted to convert to a non shifter column. I thought that with time and patience, a mechanical genius like myself would be able to take it completely apart, remove the shift lever, remove the pin that locks the steering wheel when in park, and change whatever it is that keeps you from being able to turn the ignition key to start unless you are in park. I would then remove the shifter arm at the bottom, and cover the hole in the column with a sleeve. Then I would install a floor shift. Well------It's 9:00 PM now, and I have been working at this since I closed down my mechanical design business at 4:00 PM for the day. In a word, it can't be done. Not by me anyway, and I'm damned good at this type of thing. I now have 400 small peices, and a bunch of sketches and digital photos I took while attempting this, (so I could eventually reassemble it). As far as I can see, you can only tear these columns down to a certain point, then you run out of fasteners and lock rings to undo, and you still haven't got the shifter sleeve off. I give up. I will now resort to plan B for a steering column, as soon as I figure out what plan B is.

Originally posted by brianrupnow
O.K. guys---This is how it went. I had a perfectly good Chev tilt column with a column mounted shifter, that I wanted to convert to a non shifter column. I thought that with time and patience, a mechanical genius like myself would be able to take it completely apart, remove the shift lever, remove the pin that locks the steering wheel when in park, and change whatever it is that keeps you from being able to turn the ignition key to start unless you are in park. I would then remove the shifter arm at the bottom, and cover the hole in the column with a sleeve. Then I would install a floor shift. Well------It's 9:00 PM now, and I have been working at this since I closed down my mechanical design business at 4:00 PM for the day. In a word, it can't be done. Not by me anyway, and I'm damned good at this type of thing. I now have 400 small peices, and a bunch of sketches and digital photos I took while attempting this, (so I could eventually reassemble it). As far as I can see, you can only tear these columns down to a certain point, then you run out of fasteners and lock rings to undo, and you still haven't got the shifter sleeve off. I give up. I will now resort to plan B for a steering column, as soon as I figure out what plan B is.

Tried to help you on your last thread, was completely ignored. Nobody can tell you how to put it back together now.

Well Brian this seems to be the fourth different thread on the same topic, namely Camaro steering columns. Anyway, I am sorry to learn that you are so frustrated with the situation and may be past possible reassembly. I am close to that feeling also, but your comments have been quite helpful to me and I thought we had worked out the solution using information from Henry Rifle and lt1s10. My bad luck is maybe good in that I have been stalled by a strange phenomenon wherein my usual Rustoleum black paint would not "wet" parts of the housing holding the turn signal. I sanded and scuffed the Camaro "blue-gray" paint with emery paper but in spots where there must have been some sort of oxide the spray paint just moves away from those places! Thus I have sanded parts of the column three times and had to wait for the next coat of paint to dry. In the meantime I learned a lot from you and others here so at the moment I am mildly optimistic that I can put it back together with the new cylinder and the new turn signal mechanism. Then the plan is to make a parallel rod that will be attached to the Lokar shift rod that will connect to the grommet on the lever at the base of the column. As you mentioned, the arc of the lever will not be exactly in the same plane as the motion of the Lokar shift rod but still forward is forward and back is back and in fact I think all that has to be done is just to move the rod into it's extreme position when the Lokar rod is also in PARK and it does't matter where the lever moves to when the Lokar rod moves back.. That way I hope to retain the lock condition when the Lokar shifter is in PARK. If the connection rod has to be bent around a header pipe I think that can be done because as I said the only thing that matters is that forward is forward and back is back for both the column and the Lokar shifter. I am sorry that you had trouble with the shifter device, but if you think you can reassemble the column I would suggest just removing the shifter arm, covering the hole with a sleeve and then try to keep the lock mechanism the way I am going to try to do it with a secondary rod between the column lever and the Lokar shift rod. Sometimes it is good to just close the garage door and sleep on the problem, but of course these adventures make time loss and when innovation is involved (even when this problem has probably been solved by other rodders!) it just takes time for the solution to sink in. As a last resort we can then use what we have learned on another Camaro column or break open our wallets to get a Flamed River or Ididit column. By the way, does that mean that those columns are NOT lockable?
Another possible problem occurred to me in edit mode, namely if the Lokar shifter has Reverse past the Park position then you/we will have to adjust the length of the rod, but what happens past that position? I think, not sure, that PARK is past REVERSE on the 700R4 and so the extreme forward position is PARK?????

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Well guys----I tried. I am not too freaked by this experience. I had the column anyway, and had I been succesfull I would have saved some money. There is no way that I can see spending a whack of money for an aftermarket steering column. I don't see it as being critical to have the key switch on the steering column. I would however like to have a turn signal mounted on the column, but you can buy them as an aftermarket item for about $20 from Speedway. Believe me, I'm not above using a 32" length of tailpipe tubing with a nylon bushing pressed into each end and a 1" dia shaft with a double D flat milled on the bottom and and a hub welded to the topside. It would certainly look clean in the car. I went by the auto wreckers today, but we have about 10" of new snow here, you couldn't see bugger all, and junkyards are deathtraps when you can't see where your putting your feet.

Well this is only one of several recent threads on adapting a Camaro steering column to a floor shift in a Model-A or Camaro. My main problem has been getting enamel paint to stick to the plasticote (??) surface on the column, but I did get the cylinder lock and the turn signal replaced with help from the guy at Auto Zone and the convenient rental tools they have with rebate for a net zero cost! Anyway I am solving the paint problem with multiple coats after several manual sandings but we went round and round on this Forum about how to keep the locking feature after the shifter rod is removed. NOW (!) my new friend John York of York Sports Cars about a mile from my home in the Hanover Air Park in Ashland Va tells me he solves the problem in the following way: Put the shift lever at the bottom of the column in the PARK position and tack weld it there permanently, then saw off the stub. He claims that the column will lock when the key is removed but otherwise the column will move freely. Thus the position of the key determines the locking mechanism and there is no need for an auxilliary rod from the Lokar floor shifter to the old shift lever at the bottom of the column. He says "don't worry, he will set it up for me". Well I really will not know this works till he does it but it sounds like a simple solution so I will continue painting coats of enamel until I get a nice glossy finish on the column and use the non-tilt column I have now. Compliments to Daver for showing his column on another thread, I am convinced I will never get something as neat as Daver or the other nearby build of Henry Rifle, but maybe with a little help from John York I can end up with something that looks "OK".

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

DennyW, Basically that is what I planned to do before I chatted with John York. It all depends on how much work I farm out to his shop.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder