I'm trying to tighten the bolts for the tilt mechanism because it's super loose, I'm almost at the last step but I can't pull the plastic housing far enough to get over the main shaft, the wires connecting the turn signal assembly stuff is too tight, I'm afraid to pull on it too much. Any ideas?

Sorry pictures are so bad I can't find my camera, could probably get better pics if needed. The second picture shows the whole plastic casing being pulled off toward the right, but I can't pull it all the way off the main shaft.

 

actually it seems to be the wires connecting to the turn signal lever, can I do anything short of disconnecting all of them? they're crimped in and it would be a pain in the butt to put them all back

 

i had the same problem... at the bottom of the column theres a wiring harness coming out of the bottom and connecting to the main harness, kinda long, flat, black harness, disconnect that, and you should get a couple more inches of slack.

 

NICE! I was just wondering how the wires were connected down there, thank you. I'll work on it in the morning, 7 hours is enough for today =P

I'm so close, too. I can SEE the bolts I need to get to

 

Hmph, well there was only about 1/2 inch of slack I could get by getting to where those wires connect on the bottom. I'm kind of stumped. I would need to disconnect all the wires at the top it seems.

 

You'll want to lower the column from the dash. There is a sleeve under the bracket bolted to the dash that you can slip the wiring out of once you remove the bracket. Beware, you only see 2 of the 4 bolts you need to tighten right now. The others are hidden by the tilt assembly, of which you will need to find a way to remove the spring and pivot pins at the bottom. Don't leave the lower 2 loose or you'll end up doing this again. Also, don't forget how the headlight dimmer assembly goes together behind the turn signal stalk.

And, when you get everything back together, make sure that the upper inner bearing race cone seats all the way into the bearing or you'll bend the lock plate AND damage the cone. I did that by mistake. Good thing it was a junk column I was working on .

:edit: I think there is a guide with pics on one of the G-body forums on how to do this. Helped me a bunch when I did this the first time. 2 columns in 4 hours, completely disassembled and reassembled. Going to have to do mine again as I didn't have any thread locker at the time .

 

thanks for the advice but I think all that's a bit beyond my ability, after having another go disassembling the column I ended up taking it to a shop where a guy said he'd done that repair job many times. (and now I'm broke (financially)) =p