A friend gave me a 1987 Bronco that needs some work. I plan on fixing it for my son that is now 14. The steering column is broke and needs to be replaced.Before you ask someone tried to steal it and shattered the column so it cant be just fixed.The steering wheel cover has been torn off of it as well. The Bronco is an XLT edition. How do I determine what kind of column it had? Where was the cruise control switches on this yr if it had any? What else do I need to know before I can find the right salvage unit?

 

87-91 should be very similar if not direct swap columns. What you put in it to replace what was there will require determining A) manual or automatic transmission B) tilt feature or not C) cruise control or not.

Manual/auto is fairly obvious. Tilt should have a small lever near the dashboard on the left-hand side of the column. Cruise control buttons were on the face of the wheel. If the truck HAS cruise, it will be a small black box right in front of the driver under the hood between the brake master cylinder and the fender. There is a cable running from it across to the throttle linkage along with a large diameter (3-4") vacuum pot and a vacuum line in the same area as the box.

I know the later model columns you can make an "automatic" column and "manual" but not certain on the older units. Manual column will have a key release lever near the tumbler mechanism.

The tilt mechanism changes some things internal to the column but won't matter if you are completely swapping columns.

Watch out for a failed ignition switch actuator rod (small pot metal arm that moves when the key is turned and actuates the actual ignition switch buried deep int he column). They are made of pot metal and are known to break making it impossible to start the truck with the key. They can be replaced but if you get a column with a broken one make sure you take care of it while you have the column apart.

 

Thanks greystreak . I will start looking for the cruise control components under the hood.