Heys guys, I am in need of some wisdom with reassembling my steering column. Its a '68 Cutlass S, automatic transmission. I am replacing the turn signal switch. That is threaded thru fine, but my housing has issues.
In photo 1, this was taken in the beginning of dis assembly. I have circled in red the top bolt, its in about the 12 o'clock position.
In photo 2 I show the "housing". The bolt go thru this, but it is not threaded. It does spin / rotate slightly.
Photo 3 shows after re assembly. That circled bolt is now at the 11 o'clock position. That forces the turn signal level to be rotated down, almost touching my leg. I cannot get the housing back to 12 o'clock.
Photo 4 shows what I THINK the assembly should look like. It does not show what the 3 bolts actually are threaded in to.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

If you look at the flasher button on the column in the two pics looks like you turned the wheel housing no ?
and take a second look at the blinker arm to see if it is properly attached

 

Looks like you took off the main bracket that holds the column in place. I think the entire column turned. The main mount should hold it in the correct alignment
The column is a shaft-in-tube-in-tube design. The outermost tube stays in place and I bet that got rotated. The innermost shaft is the steering shaft. The middle tube is the shift tube that turns with the shift lever and shifts the transmission via the backdrive. The backdrive will keep that tube in place if it's still connected to the trans, but the outer tube can turn when the mounts are removed.

I'm more used to the slightly later columns. I think the GM columns became incredibly standardized starting ~70 so most of the info out there is about the later common models.

Here's a good writeup on the '67-'68 column
https://www.camaros.net/attachments/...09-pdf.330682/

 

I think I may have rotated the "Lock Plate", which is the far left item in the picture below. Does anyone have ideas of how I can rotate it back into place? Hopefully without disassembling the whole column....

 

The columns changed for '69, with addition of the ignition lock cylinder incorporation into the column.