How To Replace your Lower Column Bearing: Better and Cheaper!!!
Exactly. Floor shift columns have those bearings. Not all of them apparently, I think I've heard at one point that only manual steering cars got them. My '71 Dart didn't have one, and its a power steering car, but that's not to say it didn't have one at some point. 42 year old car after all. But you can see the nylon spacer that it had in it when I got it at the beginning of the thread, no bearing there. I've also heard only manual trans cars got them. I dunno, sounds like there was some variation in cars/model years. Bottom line is, some of these cars got that nylon spacer/bearing set up.
And column shifted cars had a ball bearing set up I described above. Ball bearings inside the shift tube, and the shift tube located with a nylon bushing.
Like so. One on the left is a manual steering shaft, one on the right is a power steering shaft. Those bearings slid into the shift tube. Not a press fit or anything, but the shift tube doesn't fall off either.
Hmmm... floor shift columns have a lower bearing, no? The outer part of this bearing attaches to the column jacket with the three screws and the shaft rides on the inside which is basically the same as the insert bearings, right? Maybe I am missing something?
Please describe/elaborate what exactly you believe could bind with the insert bearings and why, how much binding you think would occur and in what situation you believe it could happen.
Exactly. Floor shift columns have those bearings. Not all of them apparently, I think I've heard at one point that only manual steering cars got them. My '71 Dart didn't have one, and its a power steering car, but that's not to say it didn't have one at some point. 42 year old car after all. But you can see the nylon spacer that it had in it when I got it at the beginning of the thread, no bearing there. I've also heard only manual trans cars got them. I dunno, sounds like there was some variation in cars/model years. Bottom line is, some of these cars got that nylon spacer/bearing set up.
And column shifted cars had a ball bearing set up I described above. Ball bearings inside the shift tube, and the shift tube located with a nylon bushing.
Like so. One on the left is a manual steering shaft, one on the right is a power steering shaft. Those bearings slid into the shift tube. Not a press fit or anything, but the shift tube doesn't fall off either.