HeavyMetalThunder_81 wrote:
I'm with you on the stock-like clean look. Rumor has it that manual tilt columns did exist in the Laredo Cherokees but I have never seen one. My local JY has plenty of XJ's and I'm sure I could get my hands on a GW column pretty easily. I think I may try combining them when it comes to that point in my build.
If you intend to combine a GW auto column shift and a XJ auto/manual floor shift column, you will still run into the shroud/base being too short/gap if you use the XJ shroud/base or having unsightly column automatic shift remnants using the GW base.
The issue is that the column base/shroud mounts differently based on floor or column types.
The automatic column base/shroud holds the shift tube with shifter arm at the base of the column for its mount.
Conversely, the base/shroud for floor/manual shift slides over the steering column tube which is wider than the shift tube.
The shift tube doesn't exist in the floor/manual columns. It's not needed. Consequently, the column shift shroud/base slides over the shift tube and would have to be cut/widened/notched/centered/welded to fit the column tube. The opposite is true of the other. It doesn't work well. I have tried it.
So here's the trick... You have to find a floor or manual shift car/truck with either:
1. a tilt column floor/manual shift long enough with a shroud/base to cover the gap (muscle car type is close) I don't know if laredo type exists
or
2. a tilt column that utilizes the auto shift tube to mount a manual/floor type shroud/base. The key to finding this is to look under the hood at the column exit to see if an auto shifter arm exists (but the car/truck is still floor/manual inside interior)
for #2 you have to search GM vehicles and probably not later than 1991.
F'n bullpucky. seems like this stuff would be easy to bolt together. it's convoluted
maybe someone out there knows the magic car/truck that has the crossover. It's likely a truck that came with either a floor or column shift as an option and the manufacturer ordered one type of column with two shroud/bases. I recently thought it was IH but the base/shroud is way too short.
http://www.binderplanet.com/forums/inde ... ge.135890/
Of course you could shorten the column tube, but unsure how that impacts the need to shorten/machine the steering shaft.