Technical three speed manual tilt steering column

I'm restifying a 48 Ford with a three speed overdrive, shift on column. Already have a Camero steering gear. Does anyone make a column that will tilt and accommodate the "three on the tree" also having turn signals?

 

I've never seen one that I can remember. I'm not sure that you could mix and match columns to make one either.

The last column shift rigs that I remember at all were some entry level full size pickups in the 70's. Straight six, no frills delivery rigs usually.

 

No

 

I can't even imagine how 3 on the tree and tilt would co-exist on the same steering column. The shifter would have to be completely behind the tilt mechanism, and then the steering wheel would be on a different plane than the shift pattern whenever it was tilted up or down.

Why do you need tilt? With the exception of some early 60's GM tilt columns which are attractive (but very rare and expensive) a tilt column forced into a period car generally looks like a bag of ass.

 

Most likely easier to convert to floor shift, although I’d bet someone can come up with a sliding shaft and universal joint to make it work.

 

This from rhe GM Heritage archives for 77 chev trucks. Tilt not offered with the 

I looked on 78 Nova and tilt wasn't offered with column shift 3 speeds there either.

 

What's a Camero?

 

A common misspelling of "Camaro", the official car of white trash, usually done when the mullet who owns it goes to sell it or its individual parts to make bail ...

 

If they could make automatic column shifters work with tilt, then they could make three speed column shifters work with tilt. But there's the whole economics thing...gotta make sure you pay the bucks to get an automatic or a floor shifter, if you're gonna pay the bucks to get tilt. The bean counters win.

 

I waited a while to reply to this thread..... 3 speed on the tree and tilt column. Why ?

 

I miss my Camero.....gotta get me another one.

 

an awesome search term to find great deals on parts for my O/T 68 on craigslist and ebay, lol.

 

Here ya go.
Remove your steering wheel, machine a piece to adapt the 3speed shaft to a gm tilt shaft.
Wack a gm tilt column just below the tilt part.
Weld it all together.
Then shorten the column.
Sounds easy.
I bet it’s good looking too

 

I tried a mullet. Damned hair curled to much. We still have the IROC so there!!

Hair? Not so much…

 

I'll bet it can be done. use the tilt column and a 3spd shifter. Cut the shift tube/rod right at the tilt hinge point. Inset a small u-joint into the shifter at that point and make a bracket to stabilize the rod near the u-joint.

It'll probably work. Is it worth it? My preference would be a floor shift.

 

I say it's possible. The tilt happen's above the shift tube and shift lever collar. You never mentioned what year Camaro.
67 68 or 69 and later?

 

see what's different?

 

A custom column could be built,... might as well add telescoping and tilt away steering features also, and change it up for a 4 speed, even a 5 speed manual transmission. It could be done.

 

If I had more tooling and Time I could come up with a customs made small tea cup look correct for pre 64 Hot Rod /Kustom .
I would use a column 40s -50 or make
And make a small tilt tea cup design different than the modern big round tilt from late 60s up & No key with a different approach of tilt mechanism.
Lathe & Mill & desire make A vision and ideals reality.
A Hot Rodder / machinist with time and labor material, Thinking out side the box & willing to do , I think it can be accomplish for less than 1k ...
$600-700ish

 

The '70s GM tilt columns have the tilt head attached to a four bolt flange that just sits in a slot. You can easily weld that flange to a piece of steel tubing to create a new column and go from there to add/create the three speed column shift. BTW, I've picked up a few GM tilt columns cheap because they were "broken" with the column head flopping around. It was just the four bolts to that flange had loosened and backed out.

 

yeah, that's how I made a tilt column for my 59 chevy truck 40 years ago...used a mid 60s Buick column for parts. But it has a floor shifter. And the 3 on the tree through 1960 on trucks, was an external linkage, not a tube inside.

 

Check out Teleflex Marine. They have them for boats. may be able to make it work. It seems to me, there was a company making tilt adapters years ago for non-tilt cars that didn't require changing the column.

 

Edited because I was wrong about what I wrote here. I'm out.

 

huh? None of the ones I've seen from the 60s-70s do that. And they have clearance between the shift lever and the steering wheel, when the wheel is tilted up all the way, and it's in Park.

 

your best bet is going to be to use an original column and shift assembly, cut the steering shaft off at the box and add a bearing to the end of the clumn tube and use that with no tilt.
But you could use a LimeWorks Tilt column and add the original shifter assembly off an original column to the Lime Works column. Not a cheap option, but it could work.

 

Three speed column shifters were always found on the cheaper no-option cars. Tilt columns were on the flashier cars. If all you could afford was a plain jane,why would you spring for a tilt column? The bean counters weren't that dumb.

 

It all sounds like a solution for a problem that never existed

 

Get out of the box and think there. Ford. Turn signal lever for tilt feature, with or without column shift auto. Now hang the tubes and levers on top. Might be a bit janky looking but seems simple. And the stick will be further down, weird. Those Ford wheels were nearly the only thing that moved. Nearly. Of course theres a body below but not a lotta column. Maybe. Maybe not. Worth it? Only your hair dresser knows for sure.

 

Jacket assembly's share the same part number. That's a plus because not all auto vs manual columns do. It'll just take someone that knows their way around columns to sort it out.

 

Just poured some coffee and this came to mind. How awkward would shifting 3 on the tree be with steering wheel tilted?