HOT steering column, what would you do? Poll

I have seen where the tube was cut/notched/clearanced with the cut being re-welded/boxed to give more room at the header tube on an a-body

maybe that can be done,just have to cut/slice it the couple inches at the header tube and make a flat area on the round tube of the colum.

a small piece of the insulation with the silver backing like used unhood of some car(grab some from a JY) could be wraped and tied to the colum where the tube ends and the shaft pokes out to keep heat and air moveing up the hollow of colum.

looks may be the only down fall of the insulation wrap

I'm going to try and locate a piece of aluminum today and fab up something, will keep you all posted..thanks

Couldn't you stuff some pink fiberglass insulation up inside the coluum? Or is the lower bearing in the way? That would stop the hot air from going up the coluum and won't cause any safety concerns. When it falls out stuff some more up there.

Here's a little Update, I made a shield out of some aluminum sheetmetal, put a couple flanges on it with some holes, and attached it to firewall/steering column bolt ends. I only fastened it at the top part with a nut. No test time yet as i just got it on. Clears shifter linkage as well.

is the lower plastic bushing in place,i cant see it? also maybe your missing the strip of foam that i think should be wrapped,glued around the shift tube to seal to the outer housing,

that plastic bushing appears to have moved up into the column. The heat shield did nothing, as i took a little drive to my dads about a half hour away...he inserted a piece of stove insulation into the tube. After it cooled i drove it home..hot as ever...my key when i pull it out feels really warm..wow...any other ideas on this?

If I'm looking at that first pic correctly you don't have much room between the header and the colum so a solid piece of metal in there would only help the heat transfer and it does'nt look like enough space for a real heat shield...Here's my ...Mark the tight spot on the header...Pull the column...Ding the header tube{s} for more clearance...When you re-install the column try and adjust it over{away from the header} as much as you can without any issues...Adjustment points would be the floor/firewall assy and the dash....A little clearance goes a long way in reguards to heat reduction...The heat is being transfered up the main{solid} shaft so packing it with insulation could very well add to the problem of transfer up the column.. ...And lastely, the added clearance would give you enough room to buy some real header tube insulation and wrap the problem area of the tube...

A piece of header wrap will help a lot around the one tube. I'm thinking your missing part of the lower bearing allowing hot air to travel up there.

Coated headers inside and out help a lot with these kind of problems, they really do run cooler, just as long as your tune up is good.

Good points by everyone, the headers don't get to awful hot.. I can actually touch them after about 3-4 minutes shut down from a good run..They are cooler than the water hoses..lol

I need to pull the dash cluster out anyways to try and fix fuel gauge so I will have the column loose, I can pull it then.

Another thing my dad pointed out we are having 110 heat index which is unusual for around here. High humidity to boot. thats about 40 degrees higher than the usual 70ish index..maybe that has something to do making it seem worse.

I'll take these ideas into consideration..thanks

Any chance you are having a electric issue inside the column that is causing heat to build up? How are your turn signals/flashers/ignition/horn, etc working? On these old systems things can get pretty hot without tripping any fuses.

just another avenue to consider!

-Jon

That's EXACTLY where I was going blown340

I have HP manifolds on mine (plenty of room) and my colum gets realy warm/hot after about 20 mins. to 1/2 hour of driving.

I have the standard cluster and not the Rallye. I'm going to disconnect my Amp Guage, fasten the wires together and try it like that to see what happens.

My ingition switch has been replaced (thought it was a dead short issue) but ended up being my low mile reman alternator that about burnt my car to the ground
Colum is still warm so I'll keep searching for the high resistance culprit

Greg

I had originally wondered that about mine, the signals horn, all that works perfect. I put a new iggy switch in, new turn signal cam and harness in, made sure that rubber sleeves they were in were effective, not rubbing against anything. My amp gauge is bypassed (both on one post) to avoid any issues there.

It's not electrical guys, nothing in the column can get that hot. I'm sure it's heat coming up the steering shaft. There was a cheesy nylon bearing down there when new. They only last so long and then fall apart and let engine compartment heat to rise up into it and into your car.

Need to positively seal it up to fix your problem.
Bill from A&M Hitech sells new plastic bushings to go down there, that's the correct way to fix it.

My 74 challenger has this one year only metal bearing down there which is very nice compared to the plastic deal. As you can see no air can go up there and my lower steering shaft is supported well.
Actually this is my 71 column that I used a 74 bearing on.

I see the plastic bearing in there, it's somehow worked its way out of that clip and about 3 inches up into the shaft. When i pull it I'll relocated it to original location.