Steering Column Shortening with Collapsible Column

I am in the process of mounting my fiberglass tub and will be putting in the steering column this weekend. As everyone knows theres not much room for us bigger guys. I have read up on all the tilt column swaps and notching behind the seat. The tilt would be the best option but my local yard does not have one that will match the spline at the u-joint so I saw some people shortening the column by an inch or so by removing the nylon plug and collapsing the column about an inch. Has anyone heard of this or done this?

Or is it possible to mount the column at a better angle/etc? I don't like the idea of chopping/welding the column or forking out 400 for a new tilt.

 

Not sure if this helps or not but I recently cut down a gm tilt column for my m38 project. I cut the outer tube, then cut the steering shaft making sure to cut the shaft towards the bottom of the column so you have room to weld. I then cut out the amount I wanted gone and began by welding the shaft back together then the outer tube. I used a piece of angle iron to hold the pieces before welding so they were straight. It turned out great and was really easy.

 

did the same thing to a suburban column for the wife's 7 column i used a piece of pipe over the shaft to sleeve the jeep splined end to the gm column so it would hook to the factory lower shaft

 

Not sure why you would want to shorten it. I just cut the spot welds on the base plate of the column and rewelded it higher up the tube. I also used the original upper mounts to mount it to my dash.

 

In my case the column must have been removed from a pickup/suburban as it was way too long. I had it on hand and like to use what I have. Your idea works if you need a few inches but in my case I needed 6 inches...it was just way too long

 

Very easy to shorten up like Pat said. I have done lots of them.

 

Thanks for the input...it turns out mine is not the collapsible. Its just the standard long bus style without tilt. I was hoping to get tilt but can't find it at my local yard so I will probably just modify it to make it work and throw on a smaller wheel.