<VV> Tele steering Column. TMI?

[Sethracer at aol.com]

There are three different telescoping columns - excluding the actual  
wheels. Four if you include the wheels. In 1965, the telescoping column was  
offered at the beginning of the model year. Those columns use a unique steering  
box and should be kept as a set, but the column will attach to a late-65 66 
box,  with some very slight mods. All 65 telescoping columns had the 
two-spoke woodish  wheel, prone to crack at the points of the spoke attachment. 
The 65 telescoping  column has a .625"-36 spline on the bottom tip, with a 
flat on one side.  That spline matches the 65 tele column steering box and is 
the same spline as  the late-65 and all 66 steering boxes. On the 65 the box 
and column are mated by  a solid steel coupler with a bolt at each end to 
tie the two splines  together. In about May of 65, the steering column and 
steering box was  redesigned to add a alignment coupler which might also add 
safety in case of a  front end collision. This design was carried on through 
1966. The actual coupler  was used on the 67-69 columns as well, but 
re-located down by the box. The  67-69 Telescoping column is unique, very pricey, 
and also very rare. I won't  address that model here. The late-65 and 66 
columns have a different tip  design from the early 65. We mostly see them with 
the coupler still attached.  The stamped steel coupler is about 2.5" in 
diameter, about three inches  long and is attached via a complex system of 
blocks, seals and snap rings to the  column. It has a female spline which slides 
over the steering box spline and has  a single clamp to retain it. When you 
remove all of the coupler  mechanism from the end of that column, you have a 
3/4" shaft with a hole drilled  through the end (a pin is pressed through 
the shaft and the coupler covers the  pin and snaps into place. At the other 
end of the column, there were two  different designs of steering wheels 
offered with the telescoping column in 66.  The exact same design as the 65, with 
a two-spoke woodish wheel is most common.  A second, cheaper, design 
offered a painted regular style wheel (but with  no outer horn ring like a normal 
Monza non-tele wheel), but it still offered the  telescoping feature with 
the rotating center bezel around the horn button.  Several of the parts on 
this wheel are unique to this style and can be hard to  get. Personally, I 
think it looks ugly, compared to the woodish  wheel. But that is just my 
opinion. The major feature of the late-65 66  style telescoping column is that it 
works with any late-65 or 66 steering box.  There is no unique steering box 
offered for the tele wheel in late 65-66, as was  required for the early-65. 
Smitty, this usually makes the 66 style column worth  a bit more, because it 
is a bolt-in for any late 65 66.
 
Prices on the market?  If with a complete upper control set-up locking  
ring through horn button, but not including a perfect 2-spoke wheel. Usually it 
 includes a wheel with cracks. An early-65 should go for about $450. With 
the  appropriate steering box in good shape $550. The 66 column should also 
go for  about $550. It need not have a steering box. A perfect 2-spoke 
original or  perfect repaired wheel should add $125. The bare wheel costs more on 
the market,  but we are talking about the difference in cost on a column 
assembly. A 66  column with the painted wheel will probably be less, usually 
around $250 to  $300. It can be converted to a Wood Wheel, but those parts add 
more than $200 to  the cost - if you can find them. A final note on the 
plastic wood wheel. The  design is prone to cracking at the sides, because of 
in and out movement at the  top and bottom of the wheel. GM caught on and 67 
and newer wheel were all three  spokes, like the more common Corvette. If 
you have a good two-spoke wheel - and  want to keep it that way, don't use it 
in daily driving. There are several  (8-10) great looking aftermarket wheels 
which are designed to replace the GM  wheel -exactly! you can have real 
wood or leather, starting at about $100. Look  for wheels designed to fit the 
Corvette of that era. They also fit the Corvair  tele-column hub, and are 
very easy to switch out, like 5 minutes. So drive it  daily with a leather 
wheel and show it with the stock plastic wood one on  the weekends. Lots of the 
small parts of the adjustable portion at the top  of the Telescoping column, 
in fact almost all of them, are common to the 65-66  Corvette - The good 
news about this commonality is that lots of those parts are  available at 
reasonable costs. The bad news - for us, is that the Corvair  tele-column can be 
modified to fit the Corvette, and the Corvette guys will pay  better than 
us. 
 
Sorry to be so run-on with the data, Smitty, but I thought you might  want 
to know.
 
 
In a message dated 8/23/2012 5:36:01 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
vairologist at cox.net writes:

Smitty  says;  What's a "telly" steering column worth.  Ball park figure  of
course.