Did any Aspen or Volare ever come with a tilt steering wheel ?

Kern Dog

Kern Dog

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There is a Volare in a Junkyard in Sacramento according to their online inventory. I'm putting a tilt steering column in a '70 Charger and am looking for parts to complete the swap.
Thanks!
 
Yes... but...Post in thread 'Steering column interchange' Steering column interchange

If you find out that something interchanges between the pre 73 columns and the later ones let us know. I was under the impression that almost nothing did and that the even the later F and M columns were completely different
 
Kern Dog said:
There is a Volare in a Junkyard in Sacramento according to their online inventory. I'm putting a tilt steering column in a '70 Charger and am looking for parts to complete the swap.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
I believe you would need the newer power steering box spline shaft. to fit the newer column .the Lebaron had a tilt wheel option, I am considering that as an option with my aspen.
 
The tilt columns that I have seen all use GM/Saginaw units that use a two piece steering shaft.

Tilt 3E.jpeg


They had a rag joint near the firewall. The shaft that attaches to the steering box itself is a bit of a hybrid. The Mopars used the pot coupler to allow for some misalignment as well as having plunge capability.

Tilt 3F.jpeg


The GM design used the rag joint to accomplish the same thing. It is odd to see both integrated into the same column but since Saginaw built these and modified them to work in Mopars, it makes sense.
 
I went out to that junkyard and found the Volare. It did not have a tilt steering column.
I did notice that it did have the same style rag joint that my tilt column has. Now I'm curious as to why. Was this some noise reduction measure used on all RWD Chryslers (other than A bodies) from the mid 70s to the end? Did the C bodies have them? I assumed that the M body cars did that had tilt wheel but aren't the M body cars just variants of the F body Aspen/Volare? There is a Fifth Avenue at a junkyard about an hour from here. I may check it out. ALL the Fifth Avenues were column shift so I'd have to remove the gear indicator on top for a floor shift/manual shift application.
 
Kern Dog said:
I went out to that junkyard and found the Volare. It did not have a tilt steering column.
I did notice that it did have the same style rag joint that my tilt column has. Now I'm curious as to why. Was this some noise reduction measure used on all RWD Chryslers (other than A bodies) from the mid 70s to the end? Did the C bodies have them? I assumed that the M body cars did that had tilt wheel but aren't the M body cars just variants of the F body Aspen/Volare? There is a Fifth Avenue at a junkyard about an hour from here. I may check it out. ALL the Fifth Avenues were column shift so I'd have to remove the gear indicator on top for a floor shift/manual shift application.
Click to expand...
The late B and C and all the FMJs had the rag joint, tilt and non tilt. I went a little way down this rabbit hole when I converted my steering to manual and got intermediate shafts out of B and C bodies to see if there was one that would work as a hot rod solution that anyone could do without welding.
 
Thank you.
Maybe it was just to reduce noise and vibrations. It is odd that the A and E bodies didn't get this change. Maybe they figured that they were getting phased out, why bother?
 
Kern Dog said:
Thank you.
Maybe it was just to reduce noise and vibrations. It is odd that the A and E bodies didn't get this change. Maybe they figured that they were getting phased out, why bother?
Click to expand...
I'm assuming it was a cost saving measure to use the GM columns The A and E bodies were gone by 76 and 74, and B and C went to 79 and 78, which was when the F and Ms were out. I'm assuming the R bodies used the same thing since they were just strange B bodies and they lasted to 81.

What's fun about it is the Mopar intermediate shaft lets you use Mopar steering boxes. Mine is out of an A body.

What's not fun is that the wiring in the columns changed almost every year.

I'd be interested to see if you can cobble together something. You might find that you can reverse engineer a tilt column from F and M parts
 
I am working on using a tilt column from a 76 Cordoba in my 70 Charger.
I'm tempted to go pull a tilt from an 87 Fifth Avenue for use in another 70 Charger.

IMG_3849.JPG
 
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