I recently purchased a 1989 Oldsmobile Cutlass Cruiser wagon (v6 3.3L) and the steering column has some play in it. Before I diagnose what is actually wrong with the steering column, I was curious what my options were for pulling a column from another car. Are there many differences between the steering columns from other cars in this era (Other Cieras, Buick Century'*, etc). I have no issue tearing into the column to see what is broken, but it might be easier to just replace the entire steering column and move on to other things.

Any help is appreciated.

I bet it has a tilt wheel, and I bet it is loose at the joint for the tilt, and everything else is solid.

If that'* true, then this is a common issue with GM tilt columns. It just needs some Loctite on the four bolts that hold the tilt assembly.

The fun part is taking enough of it apart to get to them.

There are a bunch of videos that go over it. I've done it several times. It'* not horrible. It is also an opportunity to change out the worn out turn signal return mechanism, and the turn signal stalk. Both are probably worn out, and are probably worn out on the replacement column you might buy. This would also be a good opportunity to swap out the ignition lock cylinder as it is probably worn out as well.

That makes a lot of sense. I was easily able to find some videos (my YouTube feed is now full of suggested videos on how to solve this issue) on how this is done. I think I'll give this a try first and see where it gets me.

Appreciate the help!

Please let us know how it turns out!

Will do. I've got quite a list going right now. I bought the car a couple months ago and its in need of lots of TLC. Underside is clean but the rest of the body is pretty thrashed. Really wont be a bad car once some maintenance is done. The suspension was pretty trashed and whoever had it before me did a lousy job. Right now I have it in the air for some front end work - outer tie rods, cv shafts, brakes (calipers, rotors and pads), and ball joints. I've also got some issues with the drivers glass that needs resolved. But the steering column is on my list to make this thing reasonably drivable before the weather changes. Should have the front end back together this weekend, once I have time to get wrenching again. Then Im going to concentrate on the steering column and some of the other minor issues.

Ill keep yall posted.

Just a little update on where things stand with this issue. I finally was able to get to a point where I could get the steering column torn down to get to these bolts. At least half of them were completely backed out and the other two were loose. No wonder there was so much play in the column. I put a little loctite in there (loctite on a stick ftw) and snugged them up. I still need to put the column back together (I was working on the column while waiting on some other work to finish).

Couple of thoughts:

• The screws are torx and require a torx socket to tighten (E. I recommend using a 1/4" drive version, as there isnt a lot of room for a wider socket. I attached a 6" extension to the socket, which made things really easy to access.
• The steering column isnt complicated to tear down, but there'* a lot to keep track of. While you dont have to use the loctite, I would highly recommend it so you dont have to do this again later. It was recommended in one of the videos I watched.

As suggested, there were a ton of videos on this. Here'* the one I used.

The socket is E8. I got stuck by the formatting and couldnt figure out if I could edit the reply or not.

Thanks for the followup!

This will help folks down the road.

to the original question, to replace the column you need a gm column somewhere from the late 60s to the mid 90s, and to keep it simple, match the features of your column like the stalk with cruise/wiper/high beams, a 4 speed (or 3 speed) gated shifter, then you can use whatever you want.

A 1973 pickup column will mount into that car

It may poke you tho, as the truck column will stick out further. Vans especially.

But repairing the issue is the best route, esp since the fuse boxes for those many years often were very integrated on the columns, and to keep things simple it just makes sense to repair yours

well, I was able to get those bolts tightened but it made no difference in the play in the steering column. The column is going to have to be replaced. I found some other things wrong when I took the column apart and Ive probably only made things worse trying to put it back together, so I think replacing the column is going to be the best answer.

At this point, Id like to stick with something that is as close to the length of the original column as possible. Ive been told by two different people that there'* something different about the 89 Cutlass Cruiser steering column as opposed to before. But I cant find any information about what that might be.