my column tube isnt the problem as i have a floor shift column. the interference is the steering Coupler hits #3cyl tube where it collects with #1 tube
The box coupling in early A is larger than the later ones. I'm not sure what year these changed.
Again from previous threads, Parts and rebuild kits for those early couplings are very difficult to find. This is a pretty good reason to just replace the box coupling with a universal type.