I saw an item on ebay that was titled "Big Block Steering Shaft". I emailed the guy and he says that steering shafts with a splined end, and a ragjoint flange that was removable for clearence of big block exhaust were common to all BB chevelles. He says that the small block shaft end is welded on. Is this fact or fiction? I have never heard of this. Can someone give me some feedback on this.

From one Motown bro to another, this guy has a vivid imagination at best. The shafts are all the same but the rag gears are different between manual and power steering but that's all.

------------------
Never be afraid to try something new.
An amatuer built the Arc,
Professionals built the Titanic.
Team Chevelle Gold #33
ACES Member #02913
Chevelle Club of Michigan
Rode shotgun in the ONLY Z16 convertible made.

I think the guy is correct in that BB have a removable shaft. Because it would be impossible to clear the exhaust manifolds if you want to remove the shaft. BB have a splined shaft and not a fixed end on the rag joint end.

Don

if the shafts are different,wouldn't this be another way to ID a true big block car "ie" SS chevelle.my manual steering,clear turn signal lense,round gauge cluster,no holes for molding in the quarter panel and no air 70 chevelle has a splined shaft at both ends of the steering shaft.of corse this is a undocumented car as well.----Mike

Excuse me, all of those shafts are removable. The splined part at the top fits over the steering column shaft near the firewall and the other end bolts to the rag gear which is the splined piece that connects to the steering gearbox. I own cars with both small and big blocks..no difference in those shafts.

------------------
Never be afraid to try something new.
An amatuer built the Arc,
Professionals built the Titanic.
Team Chevelle Gold #33
ACES Member #02913
Chevelle Club of Michigan
Rode shotgun in the ONLY Z16 convertible made.

I agree with Tom, have had several small block parts cars and big block cars and they are the same.

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Micky Hale Restorations
69 L-89 Chevelle
68 Biscayne 427/425
34 Plymouth Drag Car
ACES #134
www.mickyhale.com (http://www.mickyhale.com)

Well 1967 chevelles have different steering shafts non SS or small blocks have a fixed flange on the steering box end.the big blocks or SSs have a removeable flange.I know this because I have a '67 non SS floor shift steering column fixed end and a '67 big block SS steering column with removable flange and a NOS big block only steering shaft in factory saginaw tube labeled 1967 "396 only". This info is also in the factory assemebly manual and shows the different columns.
-------------
Brett
'67
SS396
clone

i've heard from many "chevelle nutts" that this IS another way to tell if it was a true BB car. i've seen the difference too.

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1970 SS396 AKA 454/4spd
My Chev-Hell Page (http://hometown.aol.com/jnkb2cool/home.html)
Member #783
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proud owner of this site

For 67, small block non tilt steering cars had a non removable flange. Big block and all tilt steering cars had a removable flange.

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Ken<UL TYPE=SQUARE><LI>Aces # 125<LI>Team Chevelle # 586[/list]My 67 and other projects (http://www.chevelles.com/showroom/KEN67RAT1.jpg)

Hey ken,learn something new everyday,I never looked at a '67 tilt that close as I haven't seen to many tilts in '67s. You can never know enough about any of these chevelles.
----------------
Brett

I have had both styles on 67 and 70 models. The small block cars have the flange welded to the intermediate shaft, and on the big blocks(even one without tilt) the flange is on splines with a clamp bolt.

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ACES Member#603
Team Chevelle Gold Member #285
67 Malibu Convertible
67 El Camino
67 Malibu Wagon (project)
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Tom--Micky which is it, all the same or different.i'm on the [different] side.anyone else care to opinionate.

I based my opinion by the cars that I own. I've never owned a 67 or older Chevelle so I can't comment on them. I do have several steering shafts in my garage that are from many cars I've parted out over the years and they are all the same from 68 to 72.

------------------
Never be afraid to try something new.
An amatuer built the Arc,
Professionals built the Titanic.
Team Chevelle Gold #33
ACES Member #02913
Chevelle Club of Michigan
Rode shotgun in the ONLY Z16 convertible made.

Should have thought of this before, in group 6.524 of the GM parts book, the book lists steering shafts by applications (car model) and makes NO reference to ANY engine sizes.

------------------
Never be afraid to try something new.
An amatuer built the Arc,
Professionals built the Titanic.
Team Chevelle Gold #33
ACES Member #02913
Chevelle Club of Michigan
Rode shotgun in the ONLY Z16 convertible made.

I was commenting on the 68-72 stuff also since this is what the topic was on (I thought anyway). I dont know about the earlier ones.

[This message has been edited by micky69396 (edited 02-01-2001).]

I recently purchased a floor shifter column of a guy and i took it home to compare it to my old one and found the floor shifter one did in fact have a removeable flange, and that steering column was out of a bigblock car, my old smallblock one was fixed on to the column, Does anyone have a removeable flange that I can buy to complete my steering column chevyboy67@speedrules.com Thanks

I hadn't paid much attention until this all started. Of the three '70 Chevelle big blocks I am doing, all have the removeable flange on the steering gear side. Last night I got a '72 Malibu 350 which had the pressed flange. They are indeed different but do we know for sure it was big block vs small block?

I don't know about other years but the 1967 assemebly manual shows the removeable flange and "396 engine" next to it.And my nos big block shaft[non tilt]is listed as "396 only" on the factory tube.
-----------
Brett

Well I've looked around at alot of chevelles and I have to agree that big block cars should have the removable flange on the steering shaft. The cars that I looked at were all documented big block cars. I believe this is another way of telling the difference between clone or original.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by don:
I think the guy is correct in that BB have a removable shaft. Because it would be impossible to clear the exhaust manifolds if you want to remove the shaft. BB have a splined shaft and not a fixed end on the rag joint end.

Don<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

We are giving away all our secrets to the "Fake original car" builder guys here but the
BB and SB's flanges are different

we walked around Chevelleabration last year lookng at all of the cars that had the wrong ones

but on the other hand, they could have been changed several times in the past 30 years for one reason or the other so I suppose it really proves nothing.



------------------
Dean Call
Team Gold member #3
A.C.E.S. # 00235
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There are two ways to reach the top of an oak tree - you climb it or sit
on an acorn and wait.

Love your enemies. It will drive them nuts

anyone got a pic of the difference? Now I gotta sort through the steering columns I have laying around and see what is what!

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Dave (NY)
70 chevelle ss396 conv
66 chevelle ss396 hdp/conv
72 chevelle
55 chevy prostreet
69/71 camaros
61 impala bubbletop
TC member #493

Alright who figured this out?
Now I've got to raise the price for these at this years swapmeet.
This is gold Dean...GOLD!

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by drptop70ss:
anyone got a pic of the difference? Now I gotta sort through the steering columns I have laying around and see what is what!
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

The difference is that the flange clamps on with a bolt through it on BB shaft but the Sb shaft has the flange is welded on as in "one piece"

------------------
Dean Call
Team Gold member #3
A.C.E.S. # 00235
Mid America Chevelle Club (http://macc.chevelles.net) #001
chevelles.net (http://chevelles.net)
My 69 (http://chevelles.com/showroom/deans69.jpg)

There are two ways to reach the top of an oak tree - you climb it or sit
on an acorn and wait.

Love your enemies. It will drive them nuts

I bought the one on ebay, I will try to post a picture of the two next to each other.

Well, looks like Micky and myself learned something new. It also means there will be a sharp price increase for big block steering shafts also!

------------------
Never be afraid to try something new.
An amatuer built the Arc,
Professionals built the Titanic.
Team Chevelle Gold #33
ACES Member #02913
Chevelle Club of Michigan
Rode shotgun in the ONLY Z16 convertible made.

Does any one have a picture of these?

Well I've certainly learned something, I'd never heard this before.

I have 2 bigblock Chevelles but I know both of them started life with smallblocks. To remove the headers on my hardtop I do need to pull the steerring shaft. To do so I pull the steering box bolts, unbolt the rag joint, undo the clip at the top of the steering shaft that holds the rubber boot in place, pull the steering box away while also pulling the shaft out of the coupler.