Thank you, I think there is enough clearance on most models to leave the column in place but I cant say that I know cause most any time I am working on the coupler, colmn or gear I just pull it out, it's pretty easy and them you have less to interfer with things. Even if it didn't completely clear you could manipulate it off while bring the K down, but again the 10 minutes to pull the column avoids a lot of agrevation in most cases so I just pop it out, but that's just me.