Fixing a Wobbly GM Steering Column, Horn Button, and Seatbelts (78 Firebird Ep.44)

[@FuzzyDiceProjects]

This episode ended up coming out a little weird, like I couldn't decide whether or not I was doing a tutorial on steering column disassembly and then we're suddenly talking about seatbelts because I wasn't sure where else to fit that in. It is what it is, I'm still experimenting to see what works and what doesn't. The general plan for the next few episodes is still on track, the layout is currently episode 45 covering the install/setup of gauges, 46 distributor/radiator/wiring, and in 47 we'll make some noise. As always, thanks for hanging in there!

[@856Dropout]

I was about to rib you a little for not having a start up video out till I read this. That’s for the schedule! That’s cool, I’ve never seen anyone do that before.

[@nickp3173]

Wasn't weird at all. We all love following this project. Whether you're barely speaking or singing kid rock - we would all still watch. It's awesome that you've been uploading more regularly. Tell Mr. Fingers to hop back on the upload train as well please!

[@zdravkomomci7570]

​@@856DropoutI believe it got started by now

[@RonaldFinger]

Man this takes me back to when I rebuilt the column on my Fiero. Good times! And of course by good times I mean absolutely horrible times.

[@FuzzyDiceProjects]

It's definitely one of those jobs that you never forget. I've done two of mine and I'm not looking forward to the remaining two haha

[@justin32123]

Love your content to Ronald!

[@rwdplz1]

I swear the Fiero column was designed by Rube Goldberg.

[@wkins]

Mister finger, I miss you

[@Sea_ass79]

When is the collaboration gonna happen between you 2. Shit would be wild. Fan theory, the tall dark man in ronalds videos is actually fuzzy dice.... who knows?

[@kenabi]

cruise control button is clearly your new nos switch.

[@smalltruckadventures]

Man if only this video would come out about 6 months ago, I had to redo the column in my mother-in-law's S10 because the rack and selector broke and it wouldn't engage the ignition, great detailed video appreciate it!

[@moosles1357]

This is honestly my favorite car that I've ever seen being built I love it and I'd be heartbroken if he'd lost it somehow

[@shanemintz03]

Fourth Gen being mentioned makes me happy. I own a 94' Z28 '6 Speed myself and have been watching this project since day one. I was 15 then and now I am almost 22 which is crazy. Can't wait to see the car run and drive man.

[@joeyoung223]

I absolutely love this series

[@Blayzn18]

Always look forward to your new videos! You're one of the only channels I watch in full screen because I know I want to catch every detail. Keep up the great work!

[@notagunfreak8146]

love the more frequent uploads!

[@Fredness2300]

So glad I will never have to do this (he says now). Great work!

[@paulmurphy5964]

I really like your narration. Steering columns seem so complicated. Good job.

[@jaytimothy]

A day when Fuzzy Dice uploads is a good day 😊

[@barowski_]

ah nice, a Saturday with some time to relax and voila, a new Fuzzy Dice

[@The_Mexecutioner]

Nice work

[@giantpune]

17:08 - I remember watching a report back in the 90s about those 2 different types of seatbelt buckles. The old style with the button on on the large side had a habit of unlatching when they were impacted from the back side. The buckle was positioned in proximity to passengers' hip bones. In a wreck, if the buckle smacked into the hip bone it had a chance of unbuckling. The newer style with the button on the small edge does not unlock when it gets smacked.

[@XathosPvP]

The Belts usually have little Steel Balls inside which are locking the Mechanism, if the Belt assembly is not positioned the right way e.g. Driver side mounted on passenger side, the Belt will either always or never lock.

[@notchbackgta]

Inertia weights

[@ltflamelee5836]

Perfect show to watch while I’m sick let’s go. Keep up the great work.

[@GregTrickey]

OMG, that brings back so many memories. I have a 1951 Chris Craft Riviera boat, and had a 78 Trans Am. Steering column fixes were the worst! On the other hand, I can hot-wire one of them in seconds!

[@alvinarmas1479]

I love the video! I feel like you should have swapped in the fourth-gen seats, since they seemed nicer than the stock seats. Maybe for a future video?

[@FuzzyDiceProjects]

I wanted to! The floor pans aren't shaped quite the same so I think it would require modifying seat rails or additional brackets, maybe someday though because fourth gen seats are really nice. I didn't mention it here but the seats from that junkyard Camaro made their way into the 1991 Firebird since that is a direct bolt-in.

[@lonwillis783]

My 1986 Chevrolet Celebrity had the same problem with the steering column. It was actually the same color too

[@chriswillman5829]

Never taken apart a steering column before. These are a lot more complicated than expected

[@motov8-garage832]

Im thankful you made this video. Ive been needing to fix my loose tilt column on my 79 ta. This is the most detailed video ive seen (there's probably only one other video and it was on a square body column) it didnt show much. Appreciate the vid👍

[@JerseyTom]

ooh, i like the adjustable divider tackle tray for keeping hardware in order 👍

[@airwolf12999]

Awesome work, glad to see the videos on the firechicken continue to come.

[@mehmetcanguven5915]

Bro! Your videos are great in terms of production and content, but we’d love to see more! Maybe you can find a sweet spot between quality and quantity.

[@jeffreyshepherd8488]

Woohoo! Made my Saturday complete

[@joelmcgregor8168]

That things got a clock?? That’s sick

[@FuzzyDiceProjects]

Yeah, the gauge cluster clock is really cool! Unfortunately they are mechanical in nature and cause a significant parasitic power draw when they are working correctly, and of course they tend to break down so mine has never moved. I'm not sure if it'll make the cut in the next video but I tried to get the clock working by replacing it with an aftermarket design but I was sent the wrong parts and had to give up on it for the sake of time/cost.

[@thieltech1]

We need another new video quickly !!❤😊

[@djfire7108]

You should 3D print some modified retractor covers for those

[@jonathandoestuff2342]

Best one yet

[@notchbackgta]

The Dynamat didn't work because it's not a sound damper, it's vibration damping only. If applied directly to the piezo disc it might work. Otherwise you would need some kind of mass to damp the sound from the box

[@anthonylaurice9593]

i wonder if you can install a resistor inline with that buzzer for the key minder to change the frequency of the tone? if you got a friend with a o-scope and 3d printer, you can make up a new speaker/buzzer for that space and make it less annoying

[@IrchaMan]

Niiiice!

[@jacksonstephens9772]

Yay a new FDP vid!

[@RebornRockerVids]

15:43 is there a gauge blurred out there or is it just an illusion? 🤔

[@FuzzyDiceProjects]

Hmm, I think you are just seeing things. It's absolutely, definitely not because I changed the gauge setup and wanted to localize the angry comments to the episode showing it happen.

[@That_fella_named_J]

Awesome video! Are you going to do the seats next ?

[@BravoKing1]

I bet someone could 3D model and print some covers for those seat belt retractors it would finish them off nicely

[@Uglier.]

looking like a weirdo at a gas station is the WORST

[@rwdplz1]

Finally, a horn to honk at all the stupid cell phone zombies.

[@michixinqq]

holy fuck, they did make it so complicated

[@justin32123]

Is it worth looking for a aftermarket/late model searbelt/ignition chime? It looked like yours just used two posts, not sure how hard it is to find a "chime" buzzer over a " buzzer" buzzer. I've seen some two wire chimes on Crutchfield that are used to reproduce factory chime when installing aftermarket head units on late model cars. No idea if that would work though. Love your content btw!

[@doolallyproductions7234]

I wonder if 4th gen seat belts will fit my 3rd gen almost all of mimes is trashed and doesn't retract

[@masterhwoarang5]

Since I keep seeing dates from a couple years ago when they pop up, I have to assume at the current time it is driveable. Can we metaphorically turn to the last page of the book and get a few seconds of the car running?

[@guffalump756]

18:25 I dont know what the sick animals at GM were thinking with those. I have a squarebody burb I've been restoring and without a doubt, getting those damn things out was an all day event with plenty of torch heating. I also managed to snap off 2 torx bits before they finally came out. Of all the jobs Ive done on that truck, its definitely in the top 5 worst ones.

[@TheHavrelandtExperiment]

Ya know, there are videos that show how to swap out that damned buzzer to a speaker that can be programmed to play a song. Like there's a Volvo that plays Africa by Toto, or you can program it play 8 bit video game music.

[@ZaphodBeeblebrox-ry5zs]

👍

Why blur gauges at 15:30?

[@proudpennsylvaniaman7996]

Do you usually have that music playing? I didnt notice it before. Was a little distracting

[@FuzzyDiceProjects]

Interesting! Yes, very nearly all of the car videos on this channel have background music. I did end up lowering the music volume in this one several times in editing, I think it was more noticeable because of the different microphone setups used. I've been debating cutting down on background music since it is extra work and the only time it seems to be mentioned in comments is negatively.

[@jar145022]

Ask someone with a 3D printer to make some covers for the seat belts… someone should be able to help ya out.

[@GreenJoanne-t6s]

Roxanne Parkways

[@aliabd260]

First one

[@JimthegreatHD]

Im getting a g20 van with steering wheel wobble

[@someone28]

16:28 I just flinched lol.

[@andriosz]

These things are complicated and don't work so well even fixed right like you just did. I wonder if a modern steering column assembly would be better and easy to swap? Like one from a Cobalt maybe? Coz a one from a 4th gen sucks too.

[@mattw7557]

What i'm fascinated by is the e.Torx bolts.. I thought that was a european thing

[@TheJeracuda]

I miss it when cars were "complicated" like this instead of having to basically having to have some kind of degree in computers and electronics to fix anything due to the billions of wires running to different computers and battery connectors lol

[@WouterB76]

Thread sealer is NOT a thread locker (seat belt bolts) hopefully you realized that afterwards.

[@aqualek1945]

Personally, I would not trust just any bolts for holding the seatbelts in place when you need them the most

[@rav4l2003]

I think you need to replace the keyminder buzzer with the Toto version - kzbin.info/www/bejne/pouWYWSHetSib7ssi=PQIlP0aLd4nOEaqH

[@austinbailey7755]

Don’t know if anyone else caught it but I’m pretty sure the car was running when he shut the door at the end

[@benjaminreinhardt259]

I've done this job a couple times. Sucks every time. Way too much fiddly crap in a GM column.

[@4909ak]

I don't think locking seat belts became a standard til the mid 90s . So idk if a 2nd gen muscle car would have them

[@FuzzyDiceProjects]

I don't think I explained it very well here, I mean the seatbelt locking under G-force like when cornering hard or in the event of a crash. I couldn't really show that, but the driver's belt definitely locked to hold you in the seat when driving aggressively and I was told that the passenger seatbelt never did. Neither the second gen nor fourth gen seatbelts I used have the more modern locking functions, where you pull the belt out all the way and it ratchets in to hold that distance, or where they lock when extended rapidly.

[@4909ak]

@FuzzyDiceProjects i know what you meant. I was in a car accident 10yrs ago in a early 90s jeep and it had no locking seatbelts. I looked it up then, they were an option but on the base model basic package it didn't have it.

[@commodorenut]

@@FuzzyDiceProjectsthe reason it’s not locking is because of the mounting angle. They usually have some sort of weight that moves a lever to lock the reel. If the weight can’t swing far enough due to the increased angle (even side to side) it won’t lock it under cornering forces. Thats why they have specific L&R ones. I learnt the hard way too.

[@abdulmalikBIH]

Start the car pliz🎉

[@Matthewspence2003]

First