C3 Steering Column

[Dennis A.]

The tilt steering column in my '69 slants to the passenger side, is there anyway to adjust this angle to be straight?

[Terry F.]

Re: C3 Steering Column

I would look under each rocker pannel and measure the distance from the frame rale and the substructure to the rocker panel. If the car body is all the way to one side, that would explain it. The column has only one position it can really be in depending on the position of the body on the frame.

The other possibility is that the column is bent. That is very possible since cars are sometimes pieced together or have sustained damage in the past. It is hard to detect unless you take the colum out and look at it. You might have to take the lower mast jacket off to see the bend. I am not that familiar with 69 though.

Good luck and let me know what you find. Terry

[Dennis A.]

Re: C3 Steering Column

Terry...

Thanks, As I'm rebuilding the steering box and replacing the rag joint, one rebuild article I read, stated that this offset of the column could be adjusted. I see no where to do this. My guess the offset is normal?

[Terry F.]

Re: C3 Steering Column

I don't know 69 very well. I have rebuilt a couple of 68's, tele and standard. You are lucky because so much is available for 69 and later columns. Does your car have a colapsable mast jacket in the lower section? On a 68, that section is very easy to bend and it would be hard to tell it was bent untill it was all apart. They are fun to rebuild.

I believe you can adjust the alignment of the column to the rag joint at the fire wall. They make it that way because the body is dropped in any of a number of possible positions. There has to be some horizontal and vertical adjustment at that point. But the upper part of the column pretty much can only be in one location. Did you look at the alignment of the body on the frame?

I found my car all the way to one side and the rag joint completely trashed. I believe the missalignment caused the stress on the rag joint and trashed it.

Doesn't sound like I am being much help. Let me know what you find out, Terry

[Dennis A.]

Re: C3 Steering Column

Thanks Terry,

I well try the adjustment at the fire wall with a new rag joint.

[John H.]

Re: C3 Steering Column

When the car was built, the column was loose-installed in the body prior to Body Drop, and the attachments to the instrument panel and at the firewall toe plate were left loose. After Body Drop, the column flange to the rag joint was aligned and secured with the two nuts, and only after that attachment was made was the column secured (tight) to the instrument panel first, then the firewall toe plate was positioned and tightened. After all three areas were tightened, that sequence aligned the column and the rag joint without stress, and the plastic spacers were removed from the rag joint safety pins and pitched in a trash barrel - they were a designed-in assembly aid to hold the top and bottom rag joint flanges concentric until the column assembly sequence was completed.