I finally bit the bullet and swapped out my steering column with a much sturdier one. My car is an '89 Formula 350 and the replacement column came out of a '91 or '92. I'm running a Grant wheel anyway so didn't need the airbag circuit and have successfully deleted that.

I have the replacement column in the car and it starts, so I figured out most everything. What's stumping me are the connectors at the base of the column. My car had white 5-wire, light grey connectors on both ends (female/body end pictured in the first pic inline below), then an aftermarket, 2-wire cruise circuit connector stabbed into a 4-wire female connector (pictured in the 2nd pic below). The replacement column has a longer, 9-wire connector (pictured in the 3rd pic below).

I'm trying to source either the male end of 4-wire connector (that I believe is the cruise circuit, 2nd pic) or the female end of the 9-wire connector (3rd pic). I have the male end of the 5-wire connector from my original column. It seems straight-forward which wires go where in either scenario of re-wiring everything up. I'd prefer to avoid buying a generic 4-wire connector (that would include both male and female ends, but totally different color wires) if possible.

Can anyone confirm what these wires are for and where I might find the connectors? I've tried a handful of places with no luck. Thanks!

 

Jegs.com Part #10408.

 

Solid guess, and I initially thought that was it too... but it's not.

The turn signal wiring sits to the right of the steering column (when sitting in the driver's seat... and my turn signals are already wired up and working).

In my car the light grey, 5-wire connector was directly below the column and the small, black 4-wire was to the left of the column.

On the replacement column the black, 9-pin connector is directly below (6:00) the column too.

 

Your 3rd Image is of the C210 Connector (Steering-Column Main Connector) and is an 11-Way Connector with 9 Terminals Populated.

The Connector set that I Posted...
Includes the same Connector that is in your 3rd Image... and the Connector that Mates to it (Packard Electric Division 11-Way Pack-Con Series Connectors).

If you could please try and explain to me what is different from the Original Connector that you have?
Please Post an Image of it, and I will keep looking for it.


The 2nd Image is of the C235 Connector (Cruise Control Connector) 4-Way Connector with all 4 Terminals Populated.

I do not yet have any information for your 1st Image of the Grey Connector.

 

The Only other Connector that I have used for the Steering Column...
Looks like the Mating Connector in the Image below:



But this Connector is usually found mated to a larger 14-Way Connector.

 

All good points and very helpful, thank you. I’ll take a closer look at the differences (if any) between the turn signal connector and the main connector. I should have a chance to do that mid-day today and will report back.

I haven’t found any reference for the 5-wire grey connector either.

I assumed the additional 4 wires in the 9-wire connector were meant to be the 4 wires for the cruise circuit. Is that an incorrect assumption?

Thanks again!

 

The difference between the 11-way connector and the 14-way connector is so subtle that it can't be captured in pictures. The 11-way has a narrower detent where it would plug into the other end of the 14-way and it's slightly offset.

I'll go with the Jeg's part... worst case I have to re-pin both ends.

Can anyone confirm that the 4-way female connector (2nd pic in my original post) is indeed the cruise circuit AND that the 4-wires there match up to the 4 smaller gauge (left-most) wires in the 3rd pic of my original post. The colors are almost identical with the exception of the body/chassis wire is white with a black stripe, but the one in the 11-way (pinned with 9 wires) connector from my replacement column is black. All other colors match.

Thanks again!

 

The good news is the male end of my black connector at the base of the column does plug directly into the Jeg's part female (body/chassis) end! So I only have to de-pin and re-pin the body/chassis end. The instructions that came with the Jeg's part are clearly for the turn signal/brake/horn circuit, so I'm hoping that using 9-pins from this on each end will marry up the wiring correctly (still haven't found a definitive answer on whether or not the 4 extra wires are intended to mate up with the 4 in what I believe to be the cruise circuit, but there's simply nowhere else for them to connect).

 

No the Cruise Control Circuits have never been part of that Connector...
It is always separate.

 

So what are the other 4 wires that are in the '91/'92 connector but not on the '89 column?

 

The Image below shows the Pin-Out of a fully populated 14-way Steering Column Connector:

 

Yep, that matches the instructions that came with the Jeg's part, but that's the turn signal circuit (which matched on both columns, so I didn't have to make any changes there).

The one that didn't match is what most people refer to as the "main" circuit. It was a smaller, light grey connector on my '89 column with only 5 wires pinned in on both ends.

The replacement column (can't remember if it's from a '91 or '92, but it's one of those) had a 11-way connector with 9 pins populated.

My car was heavily modified (fully restored about 15 years ago by previous owner) and my cruise control hasn't worked since I got it. On the column I pulled out there was the typical after-market 2-wire cruise connector jammed into the 4-way, 4-wire connector.

In the '91/'92 column there were 4 extra wires in that 11-way connector... colors and gauges were nearly identical the 4 wires in the cruise circuit. So, I matched them all up because there's simply nowhere else for any of that to go.

The car starts with no check engine light, but I have a couple other things to button up before I can get it out on the road and test everything.

Worst case I'll just remove the 4 extra pins and only leave the original 5 wires in the 11-way "main" connector now that I've already swapped over.

 

My cruise control works now, along with everything else related to steering column wiring! For anyone else who may run into this problem… don’t let connector types throw you off. Just go by wire color/gauge, use common sense and everything will work out just fine.