new steering column

Hi guys. I am looking at replacing my steering column on the 63.5 galaxie. I will need a floor shift column. when i got the car it had a real bad case of ner do well car lot idess, several pices in the column were broken or missing, i have spent way to many hours trying to fix it, it is time for a new one. My ?? is has anybody found a good replacement for the 63.5, would like a tilt, no ing switch, floor shift. Thanks bob

Originally Posted by 432bullet

Hi guys. I am looking at replacing my steering column on the 63.5 galaxie. I will need a floor shift column. when i got the car it had a real bad case of ner do well car lot idess, several pices in the column were broken or missing, i have spent way to many hours trying to fix it, it is time for a new one. My ?? is has anybody found a good replacement for the 63.5, would like a tilt, no ing switch, floor shift. Thanks bob

p.s. has anybody had any dealings with flamming river or idit steering columns ???

Why do you need to change the column if you are going to floor shift?

If the steering wheel is tight just cut and fill everything on the sides of it and keep it nice. The under hood parts can be whacked off with a die grinder...

Originally Posted by FEandGoingBroke

Why do you need to change the column if you are going to floor shift?
If the steering wheel is tight just cut and fill everything on the sides of it and keep it nice. The under hood parts can be whacked off with a die grinder...

The problem is that when i got the car someone had messed up the insides of the column [broken and missing parts] I have spent a lot of time trying to save the column, even removed the shift indicater and filled the holes and painted it,new rag joint, but because of the broken and missing parts i can:t keep the upper part of column togather. So it is time to cut my looses and move on to plan b which is a after market tilt column. I am hoping some one that has done this can give me some input Thanks Bob

Have you tried to locate an original replacement column? Unless you are just wanting tilt and a modern column, this would be much easier.

Originally Posted by Domino

Have you tried to locate an original replacement column? Unless you are just wanting tilt and a modern column, this would be much easier.

Hi yes but everthing i have looked at is over priced or worn out junk. Changing out the column is not something i really wanted to do but at this point, it seems like the best choice. Thanks bob

There is usually someone on here with a parts car that might sell a column. Post an ad in the classifieds on here and see what turns up. You might be surprised.

Oh I see. Good luck!

It is now a command performance the wife says if we are going to replace the column,she wants a tilt wheel and i always listen to the banker Ha Ha

I have a flaming river column on my 61 Starliner and I find it to be a very good product but don't expect a direct bolt in? Here are some of the things you will have to deal with ;

You will need to get a new rag joint that will transition from the ford splines to the double "D" GM type steering shaft for the column. Or you could install a Borgeson universal joint but then you have more wheel vibration to deal with.

You will need to fab a new plate to bolt the column to the dash. Not to difficult but remember it will need to be fairly strong.

You will likely have to make some changes to the trim moulding where the column meets the dash trim? The old column was likely much smaller in diameter and would have had the shift lever on the top outside of it. The new column will be larger in diameter and will not have the exposed shift rod so normally the trim has to be made to fit.

Then you will have to get a GM plug or cut the new GM plug off the new column. It is easier to get the correct GM plug and the wiring is fairly straight forward except that you may find that early Galaxies did not use a separate circuit for Turn/Hazard functions but even that is not to difficult to figure out.

Last you will need to determine what wheel you are going to use and get the proper adapter to be able to install it on to the column. You need the wheel first so that you can determine the length of column to get.

Hope this is of some help.

Scott...