Steering: Mystery cobble wire on steering shaft and loose shifter lever

[62STUDEGT]

I'm working on my '62 GT and was cleaning the crud off the steering gear and shaft and found a wire wrapped around the shaft and twisted in a knot on top. Anybody have an idea why this is there? It's circled in red in the picture.

I also have a very loose column shifter lever- it's so sloppy I bang my hand on the dash when shifting. Where do I begin to diagnose/repair the problem?

thanks for the help

[Son O Lark]

Your shift tube or levers are probably worn. Maybe the wire was an attempt to help.

[StudeRich]

Disassemble the column, start with removing the steering wheel, you will FIRST need a new Shifting Tube, Shift Bell and possibly a upper Shift Lever. After the obvious parts are purchased, then check out the condition of the lower shift levers and shift rods.

Usually you can weld up the wear spots on the rods and maybe lower levers, since new ones are scarce.

Normally a Car with over 100 to 150,000 miles, or one used on many short trips or a lot of city driving will need a complete shifting linkage rebuild.

[62STUDEGT]

Here is another picture- it looks like there is something different with the shift lever spacer- it doesn't look like the one I see in the parts diagram.

[Son O Lark]

Easiest way to diagnose wear in linkage is to have someone watch the linkage while another shifts it. It could be a worn bushing at tranny or linkage points too. It could a accumulation of wear at all points.

[62STUDEGT]

One more even closer picture- is this a correct spacer or did someone do some creative repair?

[Jeff_H]

Looks like some steel fence wire or re-rod tie wire and not copper electrical with insulation? The horn wire comes out the bottom end of the steering gear I believe.

I once worked with a lady in her late 50s or early 60s (this was in the mid 90s) who when she was first married in the 50s drove an apparently rather clapped out studebaker. She remembered having to keep some screwdrivers in the car to use as small prybars to un-jam the shifter linkage on occasion. I wonder if this wire was put on there to either help prevent jams or was to help get it un-jammed.

[cliffh]

I think that odd spacer between the shift levers was added by somebody to try to tighten things up. Maybe the wire helps hold it in place. There should be a collar with a grease zerk between the shift levers.
Cliff

[Dwain G.]

[QUOTE is this a correct spacer or did someone do some creative repair?[/QUOTE]

Yes, it's correct. Not illustrated in the parts book, but is shown in the shop manual. The open groove in the top, and the holes in the levers are for a 3/16" rod to fit through for linkage alignment. The hole is where a grease fitting should be.

[PlainBrownR2]

Is that wire looped through the housing and the linkage? I would make a guess that it's used to hold the linkage in a particular position, as it was noted. I would also think that if it's not tied to anything, that it had a paper tag attached to the wire at one time, but for that I'm running under the premise that the column came from a swap meet, the tag fell off, and it was installed and forgotten about .

While we're talking about "readjusting" shifter linkage, I still recall when I was in high school, I would drive my Lark to the vocational center(senior year I went to high school in the morning, and the vocational center in the afternoon for PC repair). Well, my teacher saw me with my car, and he told me he had a Hawk he regularly drove many years ago. However, on occasion his linkage would jam, and he used the end of a broom handle to reach under the car to get it loose .