Early '65 telescopic column rebuild

[dgrad65@gmail.com]

In the ongoing saga of trying to rebuild the telescopic steering column/wheel in my ’65 Monza, I’ve come up across more questions.

To recap: I didn’t know that the car had a telescopic wheel when I purchased it a year ago. The incorrect turn signal switch (for a non-tele) had been installed, with no cancelling cam. Upon removal, it turned out other parts were missing or broken.

At the Clark’s 50th anniversary show, I purchased the correct switch. I discovered that the 1965 Corvette telescopic wheel used some/many of the same parts as the early 1965 Corvair tele (mine was built November 1964) and purchased a Corvette tele cancelling cam (seems to fit, but snugly) and Corvette horn contact assembly plastic rivets (they work perfectly—they’re the same as the Corvair ones). Questions:

1) I installed the switch, and then the upper bearing, and then the bearing plate. As you can see in the photo, there is a plastic disc on top of the bearing. I don’t think this should be there, and may have been put there by the guy who installed the incorrect non-tele switch. As you can see, the cancelling cam does not contact the little gold button when that plastic disc is in place. Can you confirm that the disc should not be there?
2) When removing the plastic disc and installing the cancelling cam, it now not only makes contact with the gold button, but depresses it halfway. Is that correct/okay?
3) With the cancelling cam in place and the steering shaft spring on top of it, and the horn contact spring in place on the cancelling cam and the steering wheel hub properly lined up, I cannot for the life of me get the hub back in place. I cannot depress the hub far enough onto the telescoping shaft to get the steering shaft washer and steering shaft nut started on the threads. Is there a trick to this? I’m worried about breaking the plastic horn contact spring holder by mashing this down too hard.

As you can see, it’s these small details that are nowhere to be found that make these kind of little jobs into big jobs.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Doug

[bbodie52]

Perhaps the attached documents will be of help...

[66vairguy]

The 65 (early design) in the shop manual DOES NOT SHOW a shim/washer between the cancelling cam and upper bearing. I suspect someone made it to work with the incorrect switch you replaced. My 66 tele had an "added" part that didn't belong due to the improper switch.

If you assemble it without the spacer to make things fit and it works, then you are good to go.

[dgrad65@gmail.com]

Excellent! I will remove that plastic spacer. Clark's suggested that the spring I placed atop the cancelling cam may actually be the damper spring, and that there would be a second, shorter (or weaker) spring that would go atop the cancelling cam, allowing me to depress the steering wheel hub and get it attached back onto the shaft. Now I'll have to take everything off (again) and see if there is a damper spring in place or not.

[dgrad65@gmail.com]

It's been a while since I fiddled around with my early '65 telescopic column. To make a long story short, it led to my rewiring pretty much the entire car! I'm still in mid re-wiring, waiting for the warmer weather to resume the project after a cold winter. Meanwhile, I recently came across this video by Seth Emerson of Performance Corvairs out in California, and it is the best, most explicit, easiest to understand video I've seen about the early '65 telescopic steering column. He takes it apart, and puts it back together, explaining what the parts are, what they do, and how they fit together, along with some tips and insight that you'd otherwise have to fight for by trial and error. I hope this helps others--I can't wait to try out his advice and get it to actually telescope.

Now if only I could find a new (or used) upper bearing...

[66vairguy]

Thanks for posting the video.

Seth E. is good guy, always helpful. His Performance Corvair sells some interesting items. He went to a lot of expense and effort to make the "wood" steering wheel adapter to the odd ball 64-66 steering shaft and the ONLY person to do so.

My 66 has the one year only "plastic steering wheel" telescopic unit option (there were plastic tele's after 66, but different look). It uses some different parts and that was headache to find parts. One of the rubber parts I found is reproduced for old Chevy pickup trucks horn buttons!!

The Clark's tele turn signal switch does not have the bearing and I did not have one. California Corvair sells a tele switch with a bearing (less expensive vs. Clark's), but I had to add a small washer when mounting it to make it work well.

Tele columns are a challenge, but mine works great and I like the conservative look of the plastic wheel in my 4 door.

[RexJohnson]

Check with the Corvette place, they should have a bearing.

[dgrad65@gmail.com]

Thanks, Rex. While none of the Corvette places list the bearing on their websites, I suppose I can start calling around. I had a local shop crimp the original bearing so the balls don't fall out, and maybe that will work. As for getting a new switch from California Corvairs, I really don't want to pay $140 just to get the bearing! I think that Seth's explanation on the video on the proper way to re-attach the locking hub may make the difference. We shall see!

[dgrad65@gmail.com]

Looks like California Corvairs will sell the bearing only for $26 + shipping! Woohoo!

[dgrad65@gmail.com]

In an email conversation with California Corvairs, Jeff told me that the upper bearing is the same for both the regular non-tele steering column and the telescopic column. Can anyone confirm that before I order it? It seems that many places carry the "regular" column upper bearing, but state that it is the "non-telescopic" bearing.