I am converting my Dart from manual steering to power. I have torn apart the column I bought to refinish it and have a question about the column shaft. The upper shaft slides up and down in the lower sleeve (but will not come completely out). Is it supposed to do this or does this indicate the column shear pins are gone? I can't see any holes on the inner shaft where the pins that go through the outer sleeve would go into. Is this how the collapsible feature on the columns work or am I misunderstanding this? What do I need to do at this point? I hope the way I am explaining this makes sense.

the 2 shafts are made to slide together upon frontal impact. they should be locked together and not side by themselves.

1. The shear pins are not actually pins but more of the injection point for the plastic material injected in a groove around the inner shaft. I used to think they were actually pins also but recently Julesdawiperman posted excellent pictures of a disasembled shaft and they are not what they appear to be.

2. They should not slide easily if at all but if they do it isn't a problem as long as you are using the correct shaft for the correct steering box. If you are there is no way the two will seperate under normal operating conditions. If you are using the wrong shaft or swap from a power to a manual box and stretch the shaft out it may not stay together so to that.

3. If you are converting from Manual to Power do not collapse the column to make it shorter unless you properly modify the lengths to be the correct length for a power box shaft. Pushing it together will work but you will loose or reduce the collapsing effect and that would be bad in an accident.