Bought a newignition lock forthe car. The original had been slide-hammered out. Went to install itonly to discover that the little plastic gear that it attaches to was junk.

Looked all over the net at the usual supply houses. No dice. Finally spotted same colored little tangear at Eckler and excitedly bought it, but without carefully studying it. Turned out to be the black one for tilt-columns that doesn't match up to standard columns.

E-mailed Eckler and told them that the gear was the wrong one and gave them the part number on the gear. Reply stated that my part number, 7806046,did not exist.

Searched net again with part number and it came back at Rare Spares in Australia! It was used on Harmon cars that were built in Australia. GM bought Harmon. Totally frustrated, I bought three of them.

While waiting for the part to arrive, I find the Jim Shea articles at CorvetteFAQ. (Wasn't a memberat Corvette Forums yet) Old Jim says thatmy part is interchangable with most GM cars of the era, Cadillac, Buick, Chevrolet, etc. (Now I find out.)

More searching, and I find the gear in black from corvetteparts.com, which isDavies in Florida.

Usual stream of "Do you want to sell the Vette?" guys show up and tell me that the gear from Australia is the wrong one and that I'll never get it installed properly without pulling the column.

Part arrives, I slide itright in, followed by the lock cylinder (per the Shay instructions). Works like a charm.

The only difference I could find with the Aussie part was that it fit very slightly looser that original. But, the original was so badly mangled, it was hard to get any true read on it's fit.

Hope this post helps someonewith asimilar problem. They always told me not to compound ignorance with inaudibility.

 

Trying to repair anything in the steering column can be quite a task!
I'm sure your happy that it's working again and that you did it yourself. PG.

 

Update: (For young kids & stupid old men) In regards to the problem I had, and what Jim Shea was saying about someUPPER steering column parts being interchangable - Found a post by killain at corvetteactioncenter who recommends the hollenger manual, that is used by salvage yards, to find parts that are interchangable.

Couldn't find Hollenger Manualon the net, but did find Corvette Parts Interchange Manual, 1968-1982,by Paul Herd at Amazon for $84.95. Says the book is not only good for dealing with salvage yards, but for swapmeets, etc. Might save somebody some grief & some cash.

 

Great tip there, old mac.

We are always looking for more info.