1955 Ford IDIDIT® Tilt/Shifter Steering Column Installation

 by Dick Aslet

A recent upgrade to a Wurth-it Designs power rack and steering kit on my ’55 Customline, 272 with Fordomatic prompted me to install a new ididit® tilt/shifter steering column. This is a worthwhile upgrade project for those planning a swap to rack and pinion or a Saginaw power steering box swap, or for use with a stock box and modified steering shaft. Here is a recap of how I did it; hopefully the information will be of benefit to someone else.

The first order of business and the most difficult part of the swap is the removal of the stock steering column and steering box. You remove the wheel, column and shifter tubes from inside the car and the shaft with steering box from under the car. The shop manual does a good job of explaining the procedure in detail. Be sure to remove the oil filter first on V-8 cars for additional wiggle room.

The old column was supported at the dashboard by two bolts. I chose to duplicate this mounting arrangement with the new column in order to not have to drill or cut the original dash in any way. I used an ididit® aluminum swivel column drop bracket having a 3” drop that fit the new column (2-1/4” diameter). I removed the ¼” socket head mounting studs and discarded the swivel portion of the bracket entirely. I then measured up 2” from the hole center and scribed a line across and cut the bracket. The 2” drop dimension matches the original column’s position. For the cut, I used a hacksaw and after some minor passes with a flat file, everything was looking good. I then drilled and tapped two holes for the 1/4” studs previously removed. These holes should be centered 1-7/8” apart and be about 1” deep. You can now reinstall the studs with a little Loctite. The new column drop bracket can now be attached to the dash with a couple of flat washers, lock washers and nuts. The fit was almost perfect side to side on my car, but yours may require a little hammer finessing of the dash opening. The hard part is over.

To mount the column, I used an ididit® lower column mount which is essentially a band of steel retained by a pinch bolt and two swiveling “L” shaped brackets on each side. Slip the bracket onto the bottom of the column followed by the original firewall rubber seal that has had the hole opened up to 2-1/4” diameter (a sharp pair of scissors works fine for this operation). You can now position the column in the car and into the upper half of the dash bracket and affix the lower half loosely for now until your final column position is determined. Slip the rubber seal into proper position and screw the two original mating sheet metal hole covers into place. These covers require no modification as the hole is already 2-1/4” diameter. You can now slide the lower column mount into position, drill 2 holes and secure with sheet metal screws. You can now affix the shifter arm to the engine compartment side of the column and make your hook-up to the transmission and complete all final adjustments and then tighten upper and lower column mounts securely.

Adapting the ididit® wiring to the Ford completes the project. The new column is essentially a copy of a GM column and it even uses the factory Delco “harmonica” wiring connector. I obtained the mating half of the connector and crimp terminals from Painless Wiring and proceeded as follows.

The ididit® column connector will have eight wires emerging from the column assigned to the connector in the order below and providing the following functions:

Connector terminal letter

Wire Color

Function

P

White

Brake & Power Feed

N

Green

Right Rear Turn & Brake

M

Yellow

Left Rear Turn & Brake

L

Purple

Turn Signal Power Feed

K

Brown

4 Way Power Feed

J

Dark Blue

Right Front Turn & Pilot

H

Light Blue

Left Front Turn & Pilot

G

Black

Horn

 

 

 

I cut the original Ford turn signal harness about eight inches long retaining the bullet connectors that went to the under dash terminal block. There are only six wires in this harness. Strip the wire ends and attach the new Painless terminal ends. On the Blue wire, attach an additional “jumper” wire from the new terminal end and attach another new terminal end to the other end. This wire only needs to be about three inches long and will be used to power both the turn and 4-way signals. The original horn wire that went through the steering shaft can be shortened to about 20” and a new terminal end installed while keeping the original bullet connector on the other end. You can now insert the new terminal ends into the Painless mating “harmonica” connector as shown below:

Connector terminal letter

Wire Color

P

Green

N

Orange with Blue Tracer

M

Green with Orange Tracer

L

Blue or Jumper from Blue

K

Blue or Jumper from Blue

J

Blue with White Tracer

H

Green with White Tracer

G

Horn Wire

Connect the two mating halves of the connector together and insert the wire bullet ends into the under dash terminal block. Pass the horn wire through the firewall grommet and connect the bullet into the factory harness. If you have an automatic transmission, you will need to deal with concocting a neutral safety switch or bypass it altogether by using a bullet connector to tie the two factory wires together at the harness. You’re on your own for rigging up a back-up light switch, too.