80's/90's steering column into a bump?

[Spectre]

Has anyone put an 80-96 steering column into their bump? I'm in the middle of my project and am at a crossroad.. (For those who don't know I put a 69 cab on a 80's bronco frame.. Using all electrics/engine/drive train/suspension from the 87

1) Wire up the ignition/turn signals/horn/hazards from my 87's harness to a 69 style setup. Plus I'd have to make the 80's shifter linkage from the trans adapt to the 69's column.

2) Figure out how to bolt my 87's column into the dash

I'm starting to learn to #2 I figured it's easier to figure out how to bolt a column up then it is to wire everything.

[fordman]

some mounting differences in the 65-77 columns and the 80-91 columns.

the firewall seal and bracket are completely different. and that will have to be dealt with before any kind of attempt at installing the column. yo umay be able to stretch the rubber seal and boot for you old column onto the 80's column. but i tmay not work. but you can try.
the dash mounting bracket is to far of a distance to mount in a 65-79 truck that is all original. frame steering gear and cab. as you can see the aluminum plate on the 80's column may be revesreable from end to end. and you may be able to make a custom mounting bracket to replace that bracket to mount it into you 69 cab.

for wiring. the 80's columns have two sets of wires coming out of the columns. one set has the cureved plug on it that is for your turn signals cruise control and anything up inside the column such as hazard swithc or anything i cant think of. oh horn.

the second set of wires is for the actual ignition switch itself. it will have start functions seat belt lights on and off for certain stuff such as radios and all the dash knob functions. well maybe not all of them. there may also be some sort of neutral safety switch incorpoated into the switch also.

the automatic shifter is pretty much unchanged as far as bends and length to hook up to you 69 column. you may have to make certain adjustments in the bend of it or gromet sizes to let that rod fit in your 69 column.

i am thinking it may be easier to use the 87 wiring harness and the 87 column in your truck. because of the steering linkage to steering box hookups as well as wiring problems and shift rod working.

if you were to even use the 87 engine and transmission . you would basically just be doing a body swap from one truck to the other.

[Spectre]

as of right now the 69's column is installed and connected to the 87's steering box. It is functional.

Firewall seals.. I was thinking of cutting out the section of firewall that the seal and bracket goes to from the bronco and then cutting out just a little bit bigger hole on the 69's firewall and rivet/weld it in place. So my 87's seal would go right in.. (Just like I did with the wiring harness) Then I would have to worry about bolting the column to the bottom of the dash.

on my 87's steering column there's only 1 harness.(the curved plug) It's for the turn signals and hazzard lights. The ignition itself has a rod that goes down on top of the steering column to an actuator that's bolted to the column. That's where everything actually takes place.. the just just selects the position on where the key is.

the auto shifter on the 69 column is a lot different.. About 2 inches longer.. (I'm talking about the rod that's up next to the firewall in the engine bay.) I was going to just hook it up but then realized it's to different.

Everything is "bronco" except the front clip/cab All harness/electrical/engine/trans is bronco. (My build thread shows this) =)

So now I'm just wondering if it's better to re-wire stuff or try and fab stuff... I think I'll get a couple buddies over here who are more "fab" inclined then I am to see if they can get the 87's column to work.

[fordman]

if all yo uneed to wire in is the tss stuff to the bronco curved wiring that should be very easy to do. your 69 should have 7 or 8 wires coming out of it. basically you just need to match them up from what they go to in the bronco column. here is a picture of the 80-86 tss wirign and plug out of a F150. for color matching purposes. in the back ground you can see the wires that come off of the iginition switch plug. it is the box the rod actuates. the curved plugs are very much like the dentside wiring. so you may be able to use the wiring diagrams on www.fordification.net to wire in your 69 column into the 87 bronco harness.

[Spectre]

I have the diagrams for the bump from here and I have a couple of the 87 style. I'm just kind of intimidated to start splicing wires.. I'd hate to mess up pretty bad and not be able to get it to work right. Then have no way of going back in a different direction..

I do want to have the 69 stuff for the nostalgic reasons but the more I contemplate it all, It seems that the best way to go would be to use my 87's column. Might make it easier in the future to replace turn signal switches and what not.. Well that's my thinking on it anyways..

It's going to be a couple days before I decide to do any of that.. I'm busy to day and Weds. So Mon and Tues I'll just work on some of the wiring under the hood and get other things hooked up..

[ForingaMex]

I have a column out of an 80s Ford Van in my truck. Well I actually made on column out of two. I used part of the column tube from the old column and welded the ends off of the newer column to it. That way it bolts right up to the dash bracket but I had to find a solution for the fire-wall seal. The shifter linkage hooked right up to the new column. If you use the 87 bronco column than you won't have the shift indicator on the column, that is why I used a column out of a 80-86 van. I like the shift indicator on there, not sure if it matters to you.
I just don't understand why wiring up a TSS intimidates you yet you want to use the whole wiring harness out of the bronco and somehow make it work in the 69. The latter would intimidate me but I guess 'to each his own'.

[fordman]

here is how and what i would do to it. i would remove the wires from the 69 plug. now me rememberign that the 69 has two plugs i would keep the smaller plug wires marked as the turn signal wires. because that is what they are for. then i would take the 69 wires and plug them into each socket of the 87 plug and see if they worked properly for the functions they are suppose to work for. mark and remember thier position in the 87 plug main harness. then i would take the 87 plug and depin it. then soemthing i was able to do once was to remove the pins from the wires. using some small picks. i would do that to both sets of column wires. once al the pins are off of both wires. i would reuse the larger 87 pins on the 69 wires. and put them in the correct position in the 87 female side of the plug. then you will be able to plug that into the truck. if you got the wiring test and pin position correct everything should work as it is suppose to.

[Spectre]

ForingaMex: Using the 87's harness in a 69 is super simple.. i'm using the entire 87 harness.. So the dash harness is plugged into the engine bay harness just like it would in the 87.. Everything is plug and play.. There's no cutting or splicing needed.. (it would have been if I would have had my buddy install the 87 column and not the 69's column) That's the only part that's not plug and play

Fordman: That is a good way of going at it.. I might give that a go..

I'm still trying to think how I should do the shifter linkage.. The 69's linkage that comes off the column is pretty long.. The 87's is super small..

Maybe I should pull the 69's column back out and see if I can find a way to combine the 2.. to make it all work. Hmm decisions... descisions...

[Spectre]

Well I've been doing a lot of looking around and checking out wiring diagrams.. Ithink wiring the ignition switch is very doable.. Not as hard as I thought it would be.. I'm just paranoid of messing things up. I just need to get in there and do it! =)

[Spectre]

ok.. so I don't have 2 posts of the same thing in different locations I'm going to direct my wiring questions into this thread
http://www.fordification.com/forum/view ... =8&t=51071