hello olds owners : i have a 1966 olds dynamic 88 and am having signal problems , took to shop and they broke my signal actuator , mine is A body , i have assess to a very nice tilt column from a B body - could i swap the B body to my A body car / all seems to look the same , can anyone help me

 

Yours is not an A body car.

 

First of all, if the shop broke something, why is this your problem to fix? Second, your car is a B-body.

 

Joe’s point about the shop breaking your column stands, but don’t expect that they will pay as close attention as you to finding nearly 60 year old replacment parts for your now-exotic car.

Let’s get clear on A bodies vs. B & C bodies. A bodies are Cutlass/442. B bodies are Jetstar 88’s / Dynamic 88’s / Delta 88’s and later Delmont 88’s. C bodies were the 98 series.

It simpler to say Cutlasses/442’s are “little cars” and 88’s/98’s are “big cars”. Since you have an 88, well, that’s a big car.

Some stuff from the little cars swap into the big cars, but mostly not. In your case, you want a steering column from an 88 or 98 from 65-66 because in 1967 Olds changed the dash to accomodate increased US federal safety standards which were getting tougher (safer).

The best column for your car is the 66 Tilt & telescoping system, built by Saginaw as a subcontractor for GM with AC/Delco electrical switches which you use as turn signals. The next best column would be the 1965 tilt column. The most common, and least complicated would be the 65-66 big car column with no tilt and no telescoping feature. The last one on my list should easiest to find ~60 years later.

My advice would be to see if you can find the ‘66 tilt & tele column, then fall back to a ‘65 tilt, then settle for the fixed column if you can’t find the fun ones with the tilt & tele features. Start your search on eBay, go to the classic yards in the US like French Lake Auto in MN, Turners in CA, Desert Valley (DVAP) in AZ and members here on this list. Someone out there has a column which will work well for your car.

Look under my user name for a fairly long set of posts on restoring the ‘66 tilt & tele columns and you’ll see what you’re into. There is also a guy in FLA who professionally restores these columns. I have not worked with him, but I have the impression that he does very high quality work.

Hope that helps,
Chris

 

I had been looking for tilt column levers for my 65 442 which are not easy to find and was referred to Chuck at "Parts Finders" in Wisconsin. He had the levers in good shape at a good price. He specializes in rebuilt tilt steering columns. I suggest calling him to see if he has the column you need.
Contact info - Chuck Schuster (262) 677-0477

Good Luck

 

Ordinarily I would agree with you. In this case we all know that plastic is extremely brittle given it's age. The shop shouldn't accept responsibility for it.


To the OP- the cancel cam was available separately in the recent past. Maybe that can be sourced still?

 

I've taken apart a lot of them and never broken one. Ham-fisted "mechanics" who believe in brute force vs. reading the instructions are not the fault of "brittle plastic".

And to the OP, exactly what is broken? You don't need a complete steering column just because one plastic part is broken.

 

I've taken plenty apart with success and have others crumble. Its the nature of the beast, and a strong indicator why these switches and parts have been replaced a billion times in the past. This is exactly why most shops won't work on old cars.