<VV> Tele steering Column. TMI? (how about 67-69?)

[Dave Leonard]

Seth - thanks for the excellent description on the variations!

Just to complete the series, what do you know about the 67-69 variations?  I
know the wood wheel wasn't available in '69, but were the columns otherwise
the same the final 3 years?  I understood from the FTF book that some column
bearing changes were made for '69.

On the '65 column, what is needed to adapt an early '65 splined column to a
'66 box?

Thanks!

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Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2012 01:56:01 -0400 (EDT)
From: Sethracer at aol.com
Subject: <VV> Tele steering Column. TMI?

There are three different telescoping columns - excluding the actual wheels.
Four if you include the wheels. In 1965, the telescoping column was offered
at the beginning of the model year. Those columns use a unique steering box
and should be kept as a set, but the column will attach to a late-65 66 box,
with some very slight mods. All 65 telescoping columns had the two-spoke
woodish  wheel, prone to crack at the points of the spoke attachment. 
The 65 telescoping  column has a .625"-36 spline on the bottom tip, with a
flat on one side.  That spline matches the 65 tele column steering box and
is the same spline as  the late-65 and all 66 steering boxes. On the 65 the
box and column are mated by  a solid steel coupler with a bolt at each end
to tie the two splines  together. In about May of 65, the steering column
and steering box was  redesigned to add a alignment coupler which might also
add safety in case of a  front end collision. This design was carried on
through 1966. The actual coupler  was used on the 67-69 columns as well, but
re-located down by the box. The  67-69 Telescoping column is unique, very
pricey, and also very rare. I won't  address that model here. The late-65
and 66 columns have a different tip  design from the early 65. We mostly see
them with the coupler still attached.  The stamped steel coupler is about
2.5" in diameter, about three inches  long and is attached via a complex
system of blocks, seals and snap rings to the  column. It has a female
spline which slides over the steering box spline and has  a single clamp to
retain it. When you remove all of the coupler  mechanism from the end of
that column, you have a 3/4" shaft with a hole drilled  through the end (a
pin is pressed through the shaft and the coupler covers the  pin and snaps
into place. At the other end of the column, there were two  different
designs of steering wheels offered with the telescoping column in 66.  The
exact same design as the 65, with a two-spoke woodish wheel is most common.
A second, cheaper, design offered a painted regular style wheel (but with
no outer horn ring like a normal Monza non-tele wheel), but it still offered
the  telescoping feature with the rotating center bezel around the horn
button.  Several of the parts on this wheel are unique to this style and can
be hard to  get. Personally, I think it looks ugly, compared to the woodish
wheel. But that is just my opinion. The major feature of the late-65 66
style telescoping column is that it works with any late-65 or 66 steering
box.  There is no unique steering box offered for the tele wheel in late
65-66, as was  required for the early-65. 
Smitty, this usually makes the 66 style column worth  a bit more, because it
is a bolt-in for any late 65 66.
 
Prices on the market?  If with a complete upper control set-up locking ring
through horn button, but not including a perfect 2-spoke wheel. Usually it
includes a wheel with cracks. An early-65 should go for about $450. With the
appropriate steering box in good shape $550. The 66 column should also go
for  about $550. It need not have a steering box. A perfect 2-spoke original
or  perfect repaired wheel should add $125. The bare wheel costs more on the
market,  but we are talking about the difference in cost on a column
assembly. A 66  column with the painted wheel will probably be less, usually
around $250 to  $300. It can be converted to a Wood Wheel, but those parts
add more than $200 to  the cost - if you can find them. A final note on the
plastic wood wheel. The  design is prone to cracking at the sides, because
of in and out movement at the  top and bottom of the wheel. GM caught on and
67 and newer wheel were all three  spokes, like the more common Corvette. If
you have a good two-spoke wheel - and  want to keep it that way, don't use
it in daily driving. There are several  (8-10) great looking aftermarket
wheels which are designed to replace the GM  wheel -exactly! you can have
real wood or leather, starting at about $100. Look  for wheels designed to
fit the Corvette of that era. They also fit the Corvair  tele-column hub,
and are very easy to switch out, like 5 minutes. So drive it  daily with a
leather wheel and show it with the stock plastic wood one on  the weekends.
Lots of the small parts of the adjustable portion at the top  of the
Telescoping column, in fact almost all of them, are common to the 65-66
Corvette - The good news about this commonality is that lots of those parts
are  available at reasonable costs. The bad news - for us, is that the
Corvair  tele-column can be modified to fit the Corvette, and the Corvette
guys will pay  better than us. 
 
Sorry to be so run-on with the data, Smitty, but I thought you might  want
to know.
 
 
In a message dated 8/23/2012 5:36:01 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
vairologist at cox.net writes:

Smitty  says;  What's a "telly" steering column worth.  Ball park figure  of
course.

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