Tilt column with manual steering?

[ELCAM]

That's a floor shifter column not necessarily a 4 speed, all 3 speeds were floor shifters (77 was the last year of the 3 on the tree shifters.) or an automatic with a floor shifter.

 

[ELCAM]

I also have 68-72 Chevy literature that says no tilt without buying power steering so the precedence is there.

As 69hurstolds points out that requirement for the 78 up has yet to be found in writing. Why it changed no idea, but one possibility is a 3.0L non AC car without power steering or brakes would be a light car so perhaps they thought it would hold up.

 

[pagrunt]

View attachment 222061
I pulled this column out of my dads basement a few weeks back. He bought it off eBay back in probably 1999 after someone busted the column up in my wagon but it just sat in the box for 23 years. I’m not sure why he bought it. Maybe to scavenge parts off of for the one in the car. My brother said to just leave this one alone and he could probably replace the parts in mine. It looks like this column might be for a 4 speed car?

That is the manual shift column. The key relese lever was only on them. If it has a spline lower shaft it's from a '78, the double D is '79-'81.

 

[Mighty]

Yea that’s what I mean, a manual column.

 

[Bonnewagon]

I also have 68-72 Chevy literature that says no tilt without buying power steering so the precedence is there.

When I repaired my 1967 Firebird tilt column I used the top end piece from that 68-72 Chevy model. The plastic sphere was the same except the tension spring was a lot better. So it was still considered unsafe. Now look at this. An add for a 1978 to 1994 column. Same parts but with the even tighter spring.