Steering column interchangability (or other solutions)

[derf]

Does anyone know if the steering columns in our rigs are interchangable with the columns found in GM trucks?

I'm doing a 700R4 swap and I want to keep a column shifter. Trouble is, the detents in the factory column probably won't match up with the shift pattern in the transmission. My thought is to grab a junk yard column from a truck that came with a 700R4 and bolt it in. That way the detents would match and I'd have the right shift indicator for the gear I'm in.

What are your thoughts? Anyone else done this? Are there better ideas that I haven't thought of?

[carnuck]

Parts of them are the same. For the AW4 swap in mine I just dremeled the original detent to allow an extra click.

[jeepguy77]

The columns are from GM, but AFAIK no one knows exaclty what car they are the same as. best bet is to go to the junk yard, and measure a bunch of them. Its possible that GM custom built them for AMC, kinda like the special bellhousing for th400s and such.

[derf]

Parts of them are the same. For the AW4 swap in mine I just dremeled the original detent to allow an extra click.

Did you get pictures of that?

[carnuck]

Yes, but they died with my old computer before I posted them. I'll get a pic when I swap out the current column for an MJ column shift and newer dash.

[MT1]

Cant say for sure but It seems it would be minimal modification to convert to GM. I used an Xj column in mine and if I remember correctly I cut off the splines on both and tig welded the fsj spline to the XJ column.
Plugged in the harness and everything worked except the headlights and high low beam. I might hook them up on the column some day. Shifter shouldn't be an issue at all to hook up. Mine was a floor shift but I'm sure it wouldn't be a big deal.

[Grand_Wag_85]

The column in my J10 is out of something GM with a manual trans. I didn't swap it in but it seems to do the job well.