Shoddy Steering Column Restoration - I Was Burned!

[njsteve]

Once compressed in an impact, those sleeved shafts are not designed to be reused...ever. When originally built, there is a liquified plastic that is injected in order to fix the outer sleeve onto the shaft and once the plastic pins are broken in an impact, the shaft is not safe to be used again.

The plastic was designed to slow the collapse of the column when your body hits the steering wheel in a crash. If it is no longer connected as originally designed and you get into a front end crash, the column will instantly collapse and provide no reduction in your chest's impact speed. Think of jumping on a pogo stick with no spring in it.

It's about as safe, and about as legal as repacking a used airbag into your steering wheel on a modern car. Once deployed, it aint gonna work in a second crash.

You may want to bring up the above fact to the seller. If I recall correctly it is illegal to sell "counterfeit" crash safety items.