To any one that has taken a close look at my signature, ”If it ain't broke..... modify it anyway!!!!”, it will come as no surprise to you that I like to change things. I totally respect a fully restored all original classic car, however this is not the way I choose to do my cars. A perfect example of this is when I decided to replace the large steering wheel in my 62 Galaxie with the flashier and slightly smaller pony interior steering wheel found in early mustangs.
The steering wheel I bought needed a lot of work and the chrome was in rough enough shape that I ended up having it powder coated black. This gives it a slightly different look than the original pony type and ads more of a personal touch to the interior of my car.
Unfortunately for me the swap was not as simple as changing the steering wheels. Even though the steering wheel end, of the steering shaft, had the same splines and measure the same distance from the column to the tip of the shaft, the base where the wheel meets the column is different. On the pony steering wheel the base measures 3.5” but the 1962 Galaxie base measured in at 4.5”. I could have simply made an adapter but I don’t think I would have been able to get it to look right. Another issue I had was that I had already converted my car from a column shift to a floor shift and the skinny Galaxie column looked horrible without the shifter linkage mounted on top of it. With all this in mind I decided to replace the entire steering column.
Column swaps have been done many times in many different vehicles. In a lot of cases the reason for doing the swap is to add upgrades such tilt steering column or to have a column with the ignition switch on it. I considered these options for the sake of their upgrades but decided to keep a vintage look and wanted to go with an original 60's era column.
Finding a Donor Column
Fortunately for me Ford used the same basic steering column for many years, and in a lot of different vehicles. Any early Mustang will have one, but so will some of the mid 60's and up galaxies as well as a whole list of others. Even some Ford trucks came with the same basic column. I snagged the one pictured below from a 72 pickup. If you can not find a local donor steering column there are plenty of inexpensive option available on Ebay.
Making it Fit
Once I had my column I had to modify it to work in my Galaxie as it was not a direct bolt in. If you compare the steering column I have to the donor column they are almost the same length however donor columns from other vehicles such as the Mustang can be longer.
After several test fits I determined what length was needed to maintain the original steering wheel location and have the bottom of the column adequately come through the firewall. One thing I had to keep in mind as I was test fitting the column and shortening it was the steering shaft. I am still using the original Galaxie steering shaft and the column needed to be cut to a length that would work with the original shaft.
For a smooth turning steering wheel as well as prolonged steering shaft bearing life, the column needs to be firmly attached both at the base of the dash and the firewall. Due to the increase in size of the steering column I had to enlarge the firewall cover plate where the steering column met the floor of the car.
Unmodified original firewall plate
Once the hole was enlarged I cut a piece of 2” tubing to a 3” length and then split it down the middle so that I could weld it to the firewall plate. This was done so that the base of the column had something solid to mount to. A hose clamp worked very well to tighten the welded tabs on to the column.
Something else to keep in mind, depending on the upper mounting location of your vehicle as well as the upper mounting location of the donor column you may need to modify the column mount to match the vehicle it is being installed in. In my case a simple drilling out of some spot welds and then re-welding the attaching tabs to the column was all it took.
Adding a Bearing To The Bottom of the Column
After the initial sizing, modification and test fit of the column, I decided that I wanted my steering column to be better than stock so I ordered a bearing/sleeve from Unisteer rack and pinion. This sleeve presses in to the end of the column and gives the steering shaft something solid to turn in. This is a significant upgrade from the original rubber piece in the end of the Galaxie column. These bearing/sleeves are normally sold with the uni-steer classic Mustang R&P kits but when I called unisteer they were happy to sell me one on its own.
You may also notice in the picture above that the steel tabs, mentioned earlier, that I welded to the firewall plate to support the column go in to the engine compartment almost all the way to the end of the column.
With the column set up to the correct length and fully modified to easily fit in my Galaxie I removed it from the car and took it completely apart. I removed the electrical components, bearings and then broke it down in to the three metal pieces. From there I sent it off to the powder coater to be sandblasted and powder coated. Once it came back I put it all back together. I could have used the original bearings bushings and electrical components however I chose to replace all of those parts, and was able to order them relatively inexpensively from Mustang supply place. The reason I chose to replace all of these parts is that even though they seamed to be in working order, the reality is they are over 35 year old used parts and even though they might have worked flawlessly for years there is the strong possibility that could fail much sooner than that.
This is especially true of the plastic pieces and electrical connection in a turn signal switch. Any one who has ever had to replace a turn signal switch in a classic Mustang or any other vehicle that uses a similar set up knows, changing the turn signal switch when the column is out of the car is much easier. With the column fully restored I bolted it in to the car.
Dealing With the Electrical
The next step was getting the electrical working and this took a little doing. I got out my 62 Galaxie wiring diagram and my 65 Mustang diagram and figured out what color wires from the turn signal switch needed to attach to the original wires in the car.
With this information I was able to draw up a new diagram that covered just the hook up of the column electrical and thought piece of cake, or at least it would have been had Ford used the same colored wires in the car as in the diagram several of the wires were a different color than the diagram said they would be. To make matters worse the aftermarket company that made the turn signal switch also chose to use different colored wires for some of the connections on the turn signal switch compared to the wiring diagram. To deal with this I first hooked up the 4 wires I new were correct , and then guessed on the ones left over. A quick test of the brake lights and turn signal lights revealed that my guesses were correct.
Another electrical issue I encountered when doing the swap was the older type turn signal/horn switch had one less wire then the more modern one. This is because on the original generator system the horns were actuated by a relay and only one wire went to the steering column. When the horn ring was pressed that one wire was grounded to the steering column, which triggered the relay. The easiest way to hook up the newer stile horn wires is to connect the cars horn wire to one of the two column horn wires and then connect the other column horn wire to ground.
This would allow the use of the original relay as designed. The other option and the one I chose was to remove the relay and connect the horns directly to one of the column horn leads and then connect the second column horn wire to a non keyed power source. Either option will works just fine. What you chose to do depends on what kind of condition your stock harness and relays are in as well as how difficult running extra wires would be in your application.
Steering Wheel Install and Final Testing
With the electrical connections hooked up and any potential issues overcome I installed the steering wheel and did one more test of the turn signal lights, brake lights and horn function and all worked as it should have. Over all I am very pleased with the install. With a bearing on both ends of the column the steering shaft turns very smoothly, and my Galaxie has just one more modification that makes it look a little different.
The only thing that I have not yet done on the project is replace the steering column bezel where the column meets the dash. The original steering column and shifter linkage required a bezel with a long skinny opening and the new column is to wide for said bezel to fit.
Rather than trying to modify a brittle 40 year old plastic part, I am going to make a gage cluster similar to a Mustang rally pack to cover the opening. But that is a totally different tech article
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