While I'm being a pest on this forum, I wonder if anyone has figured a way to get the turn signal switch undone without having to remove the dash pad. Since I bought the car in 2001, the signal, particularly during left turns, switches itself off prematurely. I was advised to shim the signal (away from the steering column) and recently removed the wheel and the decorative, semi-circular cover in an attempt to do that. While I could undo the bottom screw easily, there was no way I could get a Phillips screwdriver to seat squarely on the top screw to budge it. I tried an offset screwdriver and even a little ratcheting driver, but there is no vertical clearance for them to work. I quit before I bugger'd the screw head too much. Anyone have experience with ths, and some clever trick, before I try again, perhaps with a universal joint on a 1/4" drive?

If I can do this, and if it turns out that the switch is worn out (I have a working spare), is there any way short of removing the dash to get that switch out to replace it?

Thanks, again, guys. I was hoping there was a way to access that switch. One important thing that wasn't mentioned, for anyone consulting this thread in the future: DISCONNECT THE BATTERY FIRST! Lots of hot wires in the area and lots of grounded bare metal.

The turn signal switch is attached to the steering column outer tube.

There are 2 clamps that hold the steering column outer tube under the dash and you have to loosen the bolts and that will allow you to slide the outer tube away from the dash.

And since you have a locking steering column, you have to remove the sheer bolts that hold it to the outer tube. The sheer bolts are still available, but we prefer to replace them with socket head bolts.


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Eric
Hi Performance Automotive Service (formerly OVO or Old Volvos Only)
Torrance, CA 90502
hiperformanceautoservice.com or oldvolvosonly.com

The "shear" bolts planetman mentioned are easy enough to deal with. I've removed many on 140 series. Use a hacksaw blade or a power "cutoff" tool to cut a slot in the "head" of the shear bolt. They are not that tight and can easily be loosened with a large screwdriver. -- Dave

The turn signal switch is attached to the steering column outer tube.

There are 2 clamps that hold the steering column outer tube under the dash and you have to loosen the bolts and that will allow you to slide the outer tube away from the dash.

And since you have a locking steering column, you have to remove the sheer bolts that hold that to the outer tube. The sheer bolts are still available, but we prefer to replace them with socket head bolts.

--
Eric
Hi Performance Automotive Service (formerly OVO or Old Volvos Only)
Torrance, CA 90502
hiperformanceautoservice.com or oldvolvosonly.com

Another job not for the faint of heart. I relate my woeful tale not for sympathy but merely to help anyone foolish enough to follow in my footsteps. First, getting those shear bolts out took about 4 hours. Didn’t seem the room for a disc grinder, nor to wield a hacksaw blade, so I used the Green Book recommended fix, which was to drill and use Ez-Outs. (BTW, that same Green Book said you didn’t have to do anything but remove the wheel and the turn signal cover to replace the switch. Probably during the 1991 restoration, a new dash cover was fitted and that was what was causing my clearance issues.) Anyway, those bolts are hard and it took finding some good drill bits to make a hole in them. Even then, with progressively larger holes and larger screw extractors, it was hard to get them to budge. I was really afraid of braking off the tool in the hole. I put some blaster on the bolt ends using a soaked Q-tip to avoid a spray mess, and eventually the driver side bolt, which had a pretty well-centered hole, “broke” and came out. Got off to a bad start on the other one and the hole got off center. Rather than keep drilling and ruin the welded nut, I got a sharp punch and used it on the outer circumference of the bolt “head” until it “broke” and then used the screw extractor in the shallow hole to turn it out.

With that and the lower clamp undone I was able to pull the outer tube away and access the turn signal switch screws. Again, all this was done with the battery disconnected. I had another switch, which seemed to operate correctly, so I cleaned it up and substituted it, hooking the battery up temporarily to test that all the functions worked. (Note, switch has to be grounded for the high beam function to work)

Then came the real PITA: Putting it back together. Those shear bolts are 5/16-18, and I had some that were longer and some that were the same size. I should have used the longer ones, because those clamps spread when you take them off and getting those shorter bolts started was maddening. But not half as maddening as trying to get the ignition switch interlock to work properly. Some hints: Before you loosen those clamps, make some measurement of the location of that outer tube…perhaps from the firewall. I just pushed it in until I thought it was right and after struggling to get those bolts started, tightened things up. The key was still in the ignition, of course, so the ignition interlock hadn’t been released. Big mistake. At this point it’s important to have the ignition switch and the outer tube properly indexed. You accomplish this with the key out and the Allen cap screw for the ignition switch assembly loose, and by turning the tube and moving the ignition switch up or down along the tube until the interlock finds the hole in the tube and clicks into place. Now you can snug up the cap screw (just till it bottoms) and the tube bracket bolts and put the switch cover and wheel back in place. But, you may not be done. Tightening either of those two things may cause binding of the interlock and you may have to alternately turn the tube (I used a pipe wrench rather than completely undoing those pesky short bolts) and move the ignition switch back and forth until it locks and unlocks properly. The lower tube clamp doesn't seem to affect the ignition lock so you can leave that to last.

Whew! Sorry for the length of this post, but I would hate to have my particular experience go to waste and some other poor sot have to figure this out the hard way. BTW, for the first time since I got the car in 2001 THE TURN SIGNALS WORK PROPERLY. So all the frustration is forgotten.

Dave, I went through the same nightmare about a year ago after reinstalling my recovered dash. But in my case it wasn’t hours - more like DAYS! I had a couple different column tubes and thought maybe I had installed the wrong one and that it was a different length so I pulled it out and compared it to the other one. WRONG! They were the same length so back together we went. Getting the steering lock to operate properly and at the same time having the right amount of ignition switch sticking out of the dash was puzzling. One lesson learned, as you well know now: Marking the location of the lock assembly on the column tube before taking it apart goes a long toward limiting frustration later.

But, how to do that. I tried putting a dab of white out, my favorite indexing medium, on the tube and the corresponding rear side of the the ignition lock body, but that was imprecise and the mark on the tube got worn off when I pulled the tube out to access the switch. I think it might be better to use a spring-loaded center punch to put a mark on the side of the tube and then use a Sharpie to put a corresponding mark on the grey ignition interlock donut. That would give you fighting chance of getting things close. From there, it's just a matter of jiggling things around. Again, my problem stemmed from two things: First, I didn't initially realize that the key had to be pulled from the ignition in order for the spring-loaded interlock pin to engage. Also, that pesky cap screw locking bolt was hitting the bottom of the dash and preventing me from getting it forward enough to jiggle. The car had been restored, so the factory relationships of everything were disturbed. Once I pulled the key and cut a u-shaped notch in the bottom of the dash to clear that screw, the jiggling process was pretty successful.

As I recall I first tried marking the location with a black Sharpie but black Sharpie on a black tube doesn’t show up very well. Ended up just scoring a line on the tube with a pointy awl.

It’s interesting that you had to grind a spot out of the dash structure in order to access the bolt. Is that the bolt that pinches the lock assembly tightly onto the tube?