1987 Ford E150 302 Automatic, cruise control, no "tilt" steering.

My turn signal switch won't lock. I tried the "Dorman Help" kit to replace that white nylon cam plate. It didn't fix anything. There's some flat metal spring steel pieces that are broken inside of this.

So I figured "OK whatever just get the whole switch no problem."

I ended up getting the wrong part on eBay (1AZTS00500, looked nothing like what came out, later realized it's for MANUAL tranny columns), got another on eBay which ironically turned out to be THE EXACT SAME ITEM AGAIN (E7TZ-13341-A/FOTA 13B302-AA). No idea how I did that.

Looked through Autozone/Advanced and there's... well, this is WEIRD:

There's SW1095, which looks like what's in there- BUT it specifically says it's for an automatic tilt-wheel, and mine doesn't tilt.

S3260 and SW1109 look like mine too, but that's says MANUAL, and WITH tilt.

There's S3296/E5UZ13341C/E5TZ13341C which says on Autozone it's for an automatic w/o tilt... but it a) looks NOTHING LIKE the switch that came out, and b) looks EXACTLY like the switch that I got that I later found out was for std trannies, and c) a mention on ebay says that's for ones WITHOUT cruise control (and mine has CC).

Well I'm stumped. The ones that LOOK like what came out say they're for std trannies, whereas the one that DON'T look like it say they're for it... but then say they're not. And there's several which seem to look exactly the same in every way here and I can't make any sense of it.

Some of these listings on Autozone get CRAZY expensive too, like $100 for the switch.

This was hardly a rare bird... old E150 automatic with CC and no tilt steering??

What part do I need here??

 

Contact user NumberDummy here on FTE---he should be able to supply you with the correct OEM part number. From there Dorman etc etc should have what you need.

I'll go out on a limb and suggest the tilt or no-tilt feature might not be pertinent because most tilt columns move just below the turn signal mounting area. This is my speculation as I'm not familiar with that year column.

Standard vs automatic shift is important though.

Also the F-Series columns would be very similar so maybe post your question in the appropriate forum for a similar year pick up.


HTH

 

I'm guessing since the part includes wire which goes all the way down the column to that curved plug, the wire length may be different for the tilt steering.

 

Called up a dealership and Rockauto support.

E5UZ13341-C or
Airtex 1s1109 or Standard Motor Products DS1289 should fit... both sources say the Cruise Control part is irrelevant and the online matching stuff saying otherwise is wrong.

 

Great. I just discovered I have TILT STEERING. Owned this vehicle for 15 years and never knew it did that.

Now I know I have 3 parts I ordered for it that don't fit and I can't return.

 

Post them including their part numbers and fitment here in the Classified section and/or eBay, offered as a package deal.

Better to recoup something rather than just toss 'em in the recycling bins.

 

Well I discovered I finally had a piece of GOOD luck. Repeating this here in case someone is Googling this problem, I wish I had known this before!

The thing is, the OFFICIAL switch for the automatic tilt-steering is E5UZ-13341-d, SW1095, or S3300. But it's A $100 SWITCH!!! And nobody carries it in stock, and they're no cheaper on ebay!

The "standard (manual transmission)" switch is S3260, SW1109, TW64, E5TZ13341B, SM66F. It's only $60, and everyone carries it. It looks the same.

But what's different?? Hmm... automatics have a light on the column selector display.

Wait, is that IT? That's not even part of the switch! It's a wire that comes off the harness plug! It routes completely past the switch so you don't need to remove it with the old switch at all!

Looks like it. There's a bare hole in the harness plug, and the harness plug is supposed to be completely disassembled during installation anyways. You'd just pop the old wire into the new plug.

So the one that costs almost half as much is essentially "the same thing".

 

If you have access to a factory wiring manual for these switches I'd check to see what significance this mystery wire has on the overall operation.

With automotive electric things that look the same often times have minor and unseen differences that greatly affect other things. While they may physically fit their differences could cause some features to not work at all.

However since you already have these parts in hand maybe install them to see if they work?

You've certainly been through the wringer on this one. Upside is someone else might benefit from your trials----good Karma I'm thinking!

 

It's just an empty hold in the manual tranny's switch plug. The wire doesn't even go to the switch at all.

The plug actually HAS to be disassembled, it was designed to come apart by hand. Boy, I did NOT understand that, Chilton/Haynes didn't have the info easy to find.

I disassembled way too much and still couldn't get the clearance for that plug to come through the column. Had the lock cylinder out, pulled the top ring housing... geez this took forever to get the little brass gear aligned correctly.

 

I'm soon to replace the clockspring in my '03's column---sounds infinitely easier than your ordeal.

For me the Chilton/Haynes manuals have never been even the least bit helpful---and I'm going all the way back to the mid-80's versions!

So far I've found most of the Ford/OEM manuals far more informative but even so some procedures are unnecessarily complicated, ie: heater core repair/replacement. First step is: Remove dash board.

Posting here usually gets a work around which makes