-If the column is out; you can just drop the pointy end on the cement floor and this will shear the plastic pins between the inner shaft and outer sleeve. That shaft only has to move about 1/8" to shear the pins. These pins are there mostly to keep the column together on the assembly-line.Then the inner will telescope up into the column.
-Be advised that the column is designed this way to keep your chest from being slammed into an immovable column in a front-end collision. In a collision,the bottom end can move up into the tube, and the top can move down on it's bushings. After your adjustment,that inner shaft will now be several inches further up in the tube, and closer to you. In pre shoulder-belt cars you are at some risk of impalement.Remember, at at about 7 to 12 miles an hour(can't remember exactly where) even a strong man cannot prevent his chest from hitting the wall in a sudden stop.
-So the answer is to pull that shaft out after the pins are snapped, and cut a couple of inches off the top end. I cut two inches off mine, but I probably shoulda cut a little more.My 68 has no shoulder belts.
-If the column is in, you can mark it now,break the pins, do the swap, snug it up and remark it; Then pull it out and cut off the difference.
-If you have and wear your shoulder belts, I suppose it might be a wee bit less of an issue, but I wouldn't want to be the test-dummy for that one-time test.
