Steering Column LOCKING
 

Hello Guys,
Has anyone experienced a steering column lock-up while driving? It has happened to me a few times while I was making a hard left turn under acceleration. Pretty scary when it happens. If I slow down and giggle the steering wheel it usually releases itself. HELP! Seems like centrifugal force causes the ignition pin that locks the column to slide into the groove in the column....any suggestions? andrew w

i took the switch and lock out and cut the locking device off. my car is a 71 and i just did not want to worry about steering failure...i would rather the car be stolen as to hurt myself or someone else over this device..

That's exactly what I did! Some people have come up with elegant solutions like retracting the locking bar and pinning it in the retracted position - I just hacksawed mine clean off. Never have to worry about that again.

I'm not exact sure what causes this, but I suspect that little pieces of the disintegrated steering column bushing fall down into this area of the steering column and sometimes catch the locking mechanism during sharp turns (I may be wrong and would love to learn the actual cause of this). Mine only happened when I made a sharp right turn. It happened twice. The second time I almost hit a road sign and hence the hacksaw.

The locking bar hooks up to a screw, if you disconnect the screw it should solve your problem.

My steering column was doing this also. Turned out to be a couple of ball bearings floating around in the steering tube. They would roll up the side and get caught in the steering lock. Required a dismantle and bearing replacement.

Thanks Guys!
Sounds like it's time to breakout the hacksaw and/or Drumell Tool!