Those manuals should help some. I've used mine quite a bit over time.

Joe, I noticed the lower column bearing 3517 looks like it has slid down some. I doubt that is affecting the length at all but you might want to take a peek at that. It should be up inside a sort of race. It's not a high speed bearing like a wheel bearing or anything wild like that and might have been like that a good while without causing anything noticeable. Just thought I'd mention it. You might not have to pull it apart to re-seat that and move the clamp up the shaft a bit.

.

 

Thanks. Is the steering shaft one piece from the nut on the steering wheel to the steering box? If so, does that mean the shaft can only be removed downward by moving the steering box (P/S unit in my case) out of the way? I just read my new shop manual and it says nothing about it.

 

Yes, that's correct. It has to come out the bottom because the flange on the bottom of the shaft is too big to put it up through the outer column.

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Thanks. Yes I could see that but thought it might be removable from the bottom of the shaft.

 

Have you tried loosening both the pinch fastener on the engine side of the column, and the column-to-dash bolts in the cab and see if you can find 7/8" upward movement in the housing as you push down on the shaft?
Eric

 

No, I didn't realize the column might be movable. I'll give it a shot. Thanks!

By "pinch fastener" do you mean the 3668 clamp in this pic?

 

Yes I do. It will not be easy to loosen and move the various components. The 4-speed column protrudes minimally through the firewall but there might be a 7/8" fudge factor available to you.
Eric

 

I gave it a shot Eric. I moved it to within 1/2" of the wheel, but that's as far as it would go so it only moved 3/8".

But while I was at it, I pushed that spacer? number 3517 up into the column and it tightened up the steering shaft considerably. I won't feel bad driving it like this until I can fix it right. The turn signals work, but of course, won't cancel and the horn can't work.

Someone earlier in the thread asked me what the two circuit breakers are for on the inner fender. I don't know why they were put there, but they're hot all the time, and painted black. I didn't see them just now, and touched my ratchet to one of them. Now my tach, voltmeter and temp gauges don't work. The fuses in the panel all "look" good (I didn't put a meter on them). I suppose they have inline fuses under the dash somewhere... More troubleshooting tomorrow.

 

Base number 3517 is listed as

Steering Column Bearing Assembly

In this case both your upper and lower bearing are the same

C3DZ-3517-A

With only 1/2" left to close the gap I bet there would be no reason to cut the shaft.

With the steering column on the automatic trucks there is an extra spring inside

7379

This spring is strong enough to keep everything from being seated easily. The manual column I don't believe has this internal spring, but something else might be hanging it up from seating completely.

.

 

My truck was never an automatic. It came with the 4 speed NP435.

What I wonder is if the top of the shaft can be modified to allow the wheel to drop another 1/2" or 7/8". That would solve the steering wheel/column problem.

 

I think you have a simple mechanical interference problem that nobody here can visualize.
Eric

 

I think once I find out what that power steering unit is, everyone here will understand what the problem is. Then you can explain it to this rookie.

I'm thinking that because this unit is bigger (maybe) than a 66 p/s unit, that might be the problem. Bill (ND) already posted somewhere that the steering shaft for P/S trucks was over an inch shorter than for non P/S. I'm pretty sure that's the situation.

 

Quite helpful already - Thanks!

On the topic of your steering column - I swapped in a tilt column from a 78 F250 along with the Saginaw steering gear. The column is shorter than my original manual steering column. The 78 column is from an automatic and my truck has an NP435, so I just removed the shift lever. If I ever get tired of shifting I can swap in a C6 trans, and my column will be set.

There is an excellent write up on the fordification site that talks about the differences between all the columns, including the wiring changes required. There might be some good info on FTE as well, sorry if I'm not supposed to mention the other sites...

Regards,
Corey

 

You can mention anything you like in any of my threads. You can even say the word Chevy without upsetting me.

This is the info I was talking about from Bill: The P/S shaft was 1 5/16" shorter than the non P/S shaft in 1966. There was no P/S option in 1965.

 

So here's the answer. The PO just told me it's out of a '67 F250. I'm guessing the "B" is for Bendix? So the 65 shaft I have is 1 5/16" longer than the shaft used with this. That is, unless the 67 shaft was different from the 66.