okay the steering column is completly out, all the electrical is disconnected and its pulled through the firewall, but there is one stupid cable that looks like a throttle cable almost, goes under the carpet no idea what its for. Cant get a pic right now but on the bottom of it theres a plastic clip which ive managed to undo and that got me an inch of play in the clip, but its still catching on something. When i look down from the top it looks like theres a catch right there and i tried prying on the top part to get it out to no avail.

what the hell am i doing wrong, pic in a bit if no ones helped yet

 

was your can an auto originally? there is a cable that would have gone to the old shifter, still not sure what its for but i do believe it goes into the column

 

hah cool ya i just cut the cable and pulled it out

hmm started taking it apart and within seconds had broken something inside the turn signal mechanism, i dont think im going to be able to fix whatevers broken inside the tilt mechanism

being a 90 car what year third gens can i get a tilt column out of and still have all the electrical connections match up

 

Probably only 90-92.. Not 100% sure though.

 

That cable you cut is a "Park Lock" Cable. Since yours is now cut your shifter will be able to be moved from park to any gear without the key in the ignition. This cable forces the shifter locked until the key is inserted and turned. Be carefull if you ever have kids in your car or they can move the shifter into "N" and roll away !

90-92 are the correct replacement columns for your ride. The 89's have Vats, but no airbag.

 

wait so does that mean i can use an 89 column? would everything else be the same cause the dash went all electric in 90. If the airbag goes on its just going to be to get it to pass a saftey, then either normal Z wheel or grant wheel is going on it. So just gives me one more year to pick from.

and ya a buddy of mine eventually explained that to me, as soon as 86 mentioned it was for my auto i went outside and cut it off, car has a tko 600 tranny now

 

I have never had an 89 column myself so all I can do is tell you what I KNOW to be true....... I installed an 87 column on a 91 camaro dash system. When I did that I had to remove the wiper system plug from the 91 column and place it on the wiper wires from the 87 column. ( I didn't splice - I just pulled the wires from the plugs and swapped them.) All the correct wires were there; but they were arranged in a different order. It's very possible that the same thing is true about an 89 column wiper plug compared to the 90-92 version dash harness plug. I'm pretty sure the 82-83 column has a 3rd type of wiper system plug too.

I'm pretty sure the only significant difference in the ignition "wiring" for the columns is related to the car being an automatic compared to a Stick........ IIRC the ignition box mounted on the column gets "flipped" on the auto compared to the stick.


Auto = Black plug in the back and Blue plug in front ( nearest to S/Wheel)

Manual = Blue plug in the back and Black plug in front ( nearest to S/Wheel)

Same plugs - same ignition box, the box just gets flipped over for some reason.

 

wow so i can use any year auto and just have to re-wire that wiper switch. Thats awesome!! i have an auto car so ill just find an auto-tilt column