My 91 Camaro Rally sport has had a bad steering column for quite a while now.

The tilt steering stuff got so bad one of the pins busted out the side of the column
trashing all the plastic on the column and wrecking the dimmer mechanism as well.

I found a really nice column from a junkyard
on a wrecked low milage 91 RS camaro and had it shipped to me. My car is Manual Tranny and the donor car was an auto. the only things different that I could see was the donor car had cruise (mine doesnt) and the ignition key didnt have the manual button to push to turn the key off.

I swapped the columns completely including ignition keys since the donor car came with keys. Both cars have the chip in the key.

When I put in the donor column the car will not start. (I get all acessories but it just wont crank) At first I thought this was due to an open nutral saftey switch due to the column coming from an automatic car. But after checking my wiring diagram in my chilton manual I see that the clutch saftey and the nutral saftey both run in parallel and shouldnt make any difference.

So Im thinking the ignition key chip is the problem.

(I swapped the columns back and forth 5 times trying to get this thing to work.
I can change a steering column at pit crew speed now lol)

My question is if I swap my orginal ignition to the donor column will it then allow me to start the car? Or do I have to swap the complete wiring as well?

I currently have the orginal columm back in the car to be able to drive this thing.

 

Danny,

Welcome aboard!

By either using the replacement column parts to repair your column, or by using your original ignition switch lock cylinder in the replacement column, you'll have to somehow use your original key to start your car. The ECM is looking for the correct reading from the original key to enable the car to crank and start.

Hope that helps.

(Glenn - was that ambiguous enough? Should be pretty safe...)

------------------
Later,
Vader
------------------
"No matter how hard you try you can't stop us now..."
Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.0

 

thats what I needed to know.
I think it will be easier to swap the ignition switch. I already have the new column tore down to the ignition switch at
swapping the columns again is a piece of cake at this point. lol

Also anyone tearing down their columns can get a really nice lockplate removal tool from Pep boys on a rental basis.
Looks just like the gm tool in the chilton manual and it works great.

 

The easiest thin g to do is have the VAt's resistor in your original key, installed to the new set of keys.

I just did this, cost me 26 bucks for the locksmith to do the work, I *may* have swapped ignition switches, but my original one was damaged.

 

thanks mike but I want to keep my orginal
ignition switch as well since it has the
push button for the manual tranny and the
other column had an auto and no push button
on the ignition switch. It wont be that big a deal at this point. I already have the other column stripped down and ready to do the swap as soon as the rain lets up.

 

When I went from the std. column to a tilt column in my 81Z I had similar problems. I found that the switch (electrical switch down on the column) and the way the key lock operated that switch was different. On the std. column the long rod from the key lock down to the switch was on top, so rotating the key to the on and start positions "pushed" the rod towards the floor to activate the electrical switch. On the tilt columns the rod connecting the key lock to the elec. switch is UNDER the key lock. That means rotating the key lock to the on and start positions "pulls" the rod away from the floor. Since the wiring connector in the car would not connect to the tilt steering column switch I had to modify the original std. column electical switch (cut off a couple of plastic tabs and flips it around 180 degrees to mount it to the tilt column. then only the wiring in the car had to be twisted around to plug the connector to the switch (no big deal). By the way, mine is a 4 spd. so once I hooked every thing up and put the key in, I pressed the clutch pedal down prior to turning the key, as usual. Imagine my (great) surprise when that 350 fired up with the key switch in the off position as soon as the clutch pedal operated the safety switch. Good thing I'd just been in the house to use the bathroom.

------------------
Z's r Best