What's the best brand of column? I bought a cheap one on Ebay for my 31A. Bad mistake, it has slack in the tilt joint. Can these columns be made to be safe or is it best to replace with a name brand.
I think OEM , Flaming River or Ididit would be the choices. You could build your own , using quality materials, but you wouldn’t have the tilt feature unless you design it/appropriate from a tilt column. Just because you want to , because most people are not going go to that trouble. Though that is how innovations work. There are ways of having adjustable steering column mount that are not tilting as long as you are using a u joint at end of column but that can create another set of issues for clearance.
Weren't tilt columns only used with power steering by the OEMs? Just curious....it's like they might have known something.... Anyways, if you can get by without tilt, that's the way to go. If you need tilt, it's probably not a HAMB type car you're building. But the names listed above are relatively good, especially OEM stuff used as designed.
What steering box are you using? Early jeep columns from 1976 to the mid 1980s had a great short tilt column. What’s great about the columns is they are GM motors column so they have GM splines for the steering wheel and also on the coupling end . Usually cheap in the bone yards .
I've heard those eBay cheapie tilts have some plastic coupler in them that when it breaks, you essentially have no steering. I never had one so it's just a rumor but I've heard it multiple times, I'd throw that thing in the trash, it's not just sloppy it's likely dangerous. Do you need to have tilt? Is there a steering column length and angle and a steering wheel you could use that wouldn't absolutely require the tilt mechanism? Because that's the way I would do it. Aftermarket tilt columns along with the big fat 70's GM ones never look very good in a hot rod interior. There are a few early 60's tilts which are good looking and would be period appropriate, I have one from a '65 Oldsmobile that has tilt and telescopic and is quite slim and attractive, if I ever felt I needed it in a rod or custom that's the one I'd use. They're plenty beefy too and no key in the column so wiring is simple. Getting hard to find though, tilt was pretty rare in the HAMB period.
The ones made from Chinesium are dangerous. Also, expect to have a one off turn signal switch, not oem innerds.
So do the OEM columns. But the OEM made them better...and they were used with power steering, so little load on them.
I sold a shit ton of Ididit tilt columns at the shop, cringed every time, boss liked the checks. Last 3 cars I had for myself plus dads 56 all had straight columns. Easily made out of some tubing and a couple bearings for an early car.
I have a flaming River tilt that I am mocking up in my ‘48 F1 and I have a 1956 F100 nice steering box to steering wheel. Seriously thinking of cutting the column off the box install new bearings and mount it in the F1. Sort of keeping the old times flavor . Also have a old chrome column mount that’s adjustable with serrated teeth I can set the column with about 3 1/2” up and down . Never seen one like it before .
Those cheapie offshore columns are inferior compared to FLAMING RIVER. There were other threads here that exposed the cheap offshore column as having plastic innards. Steering components not something I would cheap out on,,,save that for the fun fur or dingle balls. I used a stock '90's column which worked for me, and it's heavy. I handled a offshore column at swap meet,,no weight to it at all.
Thanks for all your advice. I used a tilt to give me a little more room to enter and exit the cab. I am using a half rack instead of cross steer. Car drives great, just has a little shake in rough areas on highway. The column does have slack of a eight to a quarter inch. I did cheap out, but parts or soooo high these days.
I like the tilt GM, like 1984-88 Camaro, Firebird, columns. All the aftermarket wiring has the standard GM clip and plug directly into it.I always keep a couple around for projects.
Yah; but the fork & ball arrangement in the GM columns I've worked on is a totally different concept. In the unlikely event the ball somehow disappeared in GM column the wheel, while loose, wouldn't free-spin like the broken plastic link thing in the failed China column I saw (CCP brand I think). While getting scarce I'm sure; an early '60s GM tilt is a pretty clean looking column, only strangeness is the cable operated signal switch; but not a big deal either.
Ahh yes! The infamous Hofffman Group AKA Helix Chinese garbage. How is the company still in business!?!?!?!?!
I haven't seen them, sounds like a pretty bad design. oh...here's some info from new zealand https://www.lvvta.org.nz/documents/...-2013_Unsafe_Aftermarket_Steering_Columns.pdf
Both of the links posted by you guys are good reads. They also show how much over reach our foreign hot roddders have to deal with.
Made my own. Earlier version up top. Improved version (internal springs, sturdier hinge) below. Used Borgeson double-D joint and a bearing. Stub on right side is a placeholder for the steering shaft coming up from the box. Did this with cutoff wheel, grinder, drill press and mig. You machinists with skills and equipment could make better ones, but this doesn't bind, latches down for driving and up for getting into and out of a 29AA cab. I'll cut off the lower plate once I see what else I want to put on this (horn button, high-beam switch?)
Also Postal Jeeps (DJ5) fit perfect, but no tilt, just super bare bones good looking column with a splined shaft (GM count if I remember correctly)
I don't recall what GM used for a tilt column prior to the ez-steal 1969-up column? Was that even a thing? I seem to remember that a 1968 Camaro had one.
Yes I forget about all the postal Jeeps and so many useable bits. It was the same column that was used in the 1972-1975 Jeeps as well being all GM but a tube column like the hot rod shops sell to day for big bucks.
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