Can picture Amy dancing around listening to MC Hammer'* "Can't touch this " tee hee.. ok.. going to stop now...

You're missing the shroud. It just pops off. Mine is tan, not the same color as the interior, but you might have something else wrong in there. I can take a closer look at mine in the morning. It'* kinda dark here. There too?

Actually it'* called a "COVER" This part is usually the first thing broken in a theft situation...Was this car broken into recently? At GM dealers parts like these are called "THEFT RECOVERY PARTS" If the vehicle was broken into recently you may also have to replace the "RACK" for the ignition switch too as this is what most thieves try to break to steal your car. Most smart thieves don't try to steal Bonneville though as the VATS system is a pain to get around in a short period of time. This is why you hardly ever hear of a Bonneville getting stolen.

I don't own any parachute pants...will that mess things up Drifter? Um, as far as I know it has not been broken into lately. But then again, if the cover had just popped off, you'd think I would have found it in the car. There'* no other damage that I've noticed, but I don't really know what to look for. So this won't be hard to replace or anything? It sound like I could just grab one at a junkyard...or is this a case for my friendly neighborhood dealership?

Dealership or wrecking yard. Either should be fairly easy to get this from. I still think there'* something else going on there. My brights work just fine with that cover off. Start with the cover, and if it doesn't work, duct tape that spring in!

The handyman'* secret weapon, eh? Good idea! That won't effect how it works, will it?

I don't think the cover is going to solve your problem. I think the turn signal arm is the problem....maybe a little broken piece of plastic or something. It'* really hard to tell what'* going on in there unless you take it apart and watch it while you switch it on and off (the brights). I'm betting the previous owner had the problem, looked in there, and couldn't get the cover back on right. It has to slide forward along the column towards the steering wheel, and engage 2 little tabs into slots on the column. You can see them both in the picture. The top tab is behind the green wire coming out of the top of the small connector, and the bottom tab is behind the light blue wire.

That makes sense. The brights worked fine until about a month ago, and then I noticed that when I tried to turn them on there was a loud click and they suddenly didn't work. Couldn't find the cover when I got home, but the spring was there. Who knows. One more thing for the tech people to look at.

I would have to say then if you DIDN't FIND THE COVER IN THE CAR that you were broken into by an amature thief! Most expienced thieves leave our cars alone because of the VATS system! Someone may have damaged the internal components in the coluum though just the same.