Sick 83 drop-top

I'm attempting to diagnose and fix a steering column on a 1983
Mustang GLX Conv. w/ tilt no delay. Once I got it apart I could see
that the lock housing was broken in two halves. The extent of the
damage I fear is more than I can fix. I'm not sure what needs to be
replaced and what can be salvaged, besides the housing. After hours of
searching, the parts that I think need to be replaced are near
impossible to find. I'm pretty sure there is not an alternate column
I can use besides an '83. So far I've tracked down a housing($35."Ford
dealership") and a classic parts store near by said they could pull a
column from somewhere.?($135.)Im really hoping on that column it is the
only one I can find. If I'm going to fix the old column I have to
find out how to get the "tilt, joint,bearing,swivel" thing off before I
can think about putting the new housing on. I'm stuck over my head on
what to do, this is my single mode of trans. and the car has already
drained my savings in the six months that I've owned it. Please any!
sugg. would help...

In article , lastchance 83 wrote:
> Once I got it apart I could see
> that the lock housing was broken in two halves. The extent of the
> damage I fear is more than I can fix. I'm not sure what needs to be
> replaced and what can be salvaged, besides the housing. After hours of
> searching, the parts that I think need to be replaced are near
> impossible to find.

The only cheap and easy way out of this is to replace the column with one
from the salvage yard. With an '83 you probably can use a wide variety of
columns given that just about every ford product around that time was on
the fox platform.

Because of two theft attempts on an '82 olds I got to replace the
steering column twice on that car. Basically it meant removing a column
from a car at the self serve salvage yard, then I would transfer the lock
cylinder and steering wheel over from the old column and in at least one
case the multifunction switch because the car the column came from was
missing one of the functions. Had to paint the housing on the first one,
second one got lucky and found the right color. It was some years ago,
but they were $50 at the time as I recall.

Anyway, mechanically columns from later years or even fairmonts etc
may be identical. Take a good look at those in later mustangs, they are
probably close enough for anything but trying to be a factory orginal
show car up until airbags went in. It would be a matter of moving over the
parts you need from your existing column. Of course tilt/no tilt columns
are mechanically different, so you'll need to match there. Get to know what
yours is like, how it mounts into the car, size, etc then at the yard
you'll know what to look for.