NCRS Position on Campaign Items

[Jim S.]

I am fairly new to this board. What is the NCRS position on parts that were campaigned and replaced by GM/Chevrolet as part of a recall?

Particularly with respect to the Firestone 500 tires that were recalled over several model years. Surely cars that came originally with those tires are not expected to be purely "trailer queens". As far as I know the tires are not duplicated today. Surely those original tires should be destroyed and not even available to the unsuspecting.

I have the same type question with respect to the early 1967 energy absorbing steering columns. The steering shafts and/or the steering columns were all replaced during the 1967 model year to eliminate the possibility of steering shaft breakage. All 1967 columns should have the clamp, nut, and bolt type lower bearing retention system. No steering columns with a snap ring retained lower bearing should be in a vehicle as a safety concern.

Jim

[Joe C.]

Re: NCRS Position on Campaign Items

Any item that was replaced or modified as a result of a factory recall will have appropriate deductions made, to the extent that the recall modified the configuration from original.

[Dennis C.]

NCRS Position on Campaign Items

Very well stated, Joe...

[Bernard M.]

Re: NCRS Position on Campaign Items

This is covered in the latest revision of the standard deductions which are published in the NCRS Corvette Judging Reference Manual.

"Owners able to document Chevrolet notice for a factory recall modification to their vehicle and which appears to have been performed by a Chevrolet Dealer to factory specifications, will receive a minimum originality deduction."

Minimum, IMHO, is in the order of not more than 10%.

Bernie Myers

[Michael H.]

Re: NCRS Position on Campaign Items

I have the same type question with respect to the early 1967 energy absorbing steering columns. The steering shafts and/or the steering columns were all replaced during the 1967 model year to eliminate the possibility of steering shaft breakage. All 1967 columns should have the clamp, nut, and bolt type lower bearing retention system. No steering columns with a snap ring retained lower bearing should be in a vehicle as a safety concern.

Jim

Jim,

When you say the columns in 67's were replaced, do you mean physically, in service, or just a change for the part and part number on the assembly line during the model year?

In other words, if you brought your early production 67 to the dealer for the campaign/recall, did the dealer replace the entire steering column?

I don't remember a complete steering column replacement campaign at that time.
If the part was changed in production, wouldn't that mean there would have been more than one design used during the 67 model year?

[Dennis C.]

NCRS Position on Campaign Items

Let me expand just a bit on Bernard's post: Any factory "recalls", etc require the car owner to show GM proof of that act prior/during judging in order to minimize the deduction.

In addition, the NCRS stance on this issue is quite easily understood if one is to simply review our Judging Standard which has been in place since 1974...

[Harmon C.]

Re: NCRS Position on Campaign Items

On tires their is a chart and the deduction should be uniform. I changed to Firestone 500's as soon as I backed out of the trailor many times. The best tire you can buy today usally got a 60% deduction. I still have several sets and a few of the rare Firestone 500's with the white shield just in case a few blow out sitting around. It would not be good to change the rules. For a PV you can use a new replacement as it should be.

[Mike M.]

Re: NCRS Position on Campaign Items

there were first and second design 67 steering col's.mike

[Jim S.]

Re: NCRS Position on Campaign Items

I believe that the campaign consisted of Saginaw supplying steering shafts, spacers, clamps, nuts, and bolts. The dealer was to disassemble the column and replace the steering shaft with the supplied new parts. I do not know if the column needed to be removed from the car or not to make this change.

We know that the 1967 C2 started production with steering column 5698346. This column had a snap ring, a groove in the lower steering shaft, and a plastic threaded adjuster to take up steering column to steering shaft stackup. This column should have an alpha code sticker up near the column head with the 5698346 part number and the code "TO".

We know that the first C3 standard steering column with a clamp replacing the snap ring was part number 7802101. However, for some reason it was originally released on 11-16-66 with the snap ring and groove in the lower steering shaft same as 5698346. Were any steering columns actually manufactured that way? Don't know. But a month and a half after ther release date there was a revision dated 1-3-67 that changed from the snap ring to the clamp. Given the third of January date I would expect that some engineers and draftsmen probably worked through the Christmas break to make all of the steering column drawing changes for all GM passenger car steering columns that eliminated the snap ring and steering shaft groove.

In most cases drawing changes take months to reach actual production. But in the case of a safety related campaign, actual hardware may be ahead of the drawing releases. So if you find a 1967 C2 with the alpha code sticker up near the column head with the part number 7802101 and "TO" it could have been manufactured with the clamp or it could be a dealer installed campaign part with the clamp.

The one thing that we do know, there was a third 1967 steering column, part number 7803156. This one only had the spacer, clamp, bolt, and nut. It was released for production on 2-6-67. The alpha code sticker (with part number 7803156 and still with "TO") was located in the same area where the assembly plant attaches the toe plate to the column. The good news is that the toe plate clamp could have protected the sticker through the years. The bad news is that you might not be able to see the sticker without removing the toe plate.

So we are led to the following conclusions:
Standard steering column 5698346 (with snap ring, steering shaft groove, and plastic threaded adjuster) was used at start of production.

Standard steering column 7802101 may or may not have been in production. If it was, it may have started with the snap ring design and may have changed to the clamp design as a running change. That January 3rd revision date is intriguing. I suspect that GM might have wanted a clean break from the snap ring groove design at the start of the new year on all of their passenger cars. It could be that in this case the drawing dates also reflected the SOP dates.

Standard steering column 7803156 was in use at the end of C2 production. Its release date was 2-6-67. It always had the clamp design.

Here is an interesting thought. GM assembly plants can only keep track of part number changes. They do not track revision levels or dates. If 7802101 was in production and changed to the clamp design, the St. Louis assembly plant would not have a paper work trail as to the actual change date. So 7802101 might have been used to implement the change on a ASAP basis. And the new part number 7803156 was introduced in February to officially track the change.

Jim

[Stuart F.]

Re: NCRS Position on Campaign Items

I had a set of the Firestone 500's, believe they were GR70-15's (does that sound right? - I'm not a C-3 man), and I recall checking the recall serial numbers back then. Mine were a few numbers short of the campaign numbers. They were brand new and I thought I'd have to eat them. As it turned out, my son sold them back in the early 90's to a fellow he met casually for twice what I paid for them and we were all happy.

Stu Fox

[Michael H.]

Re: NCRS Position on Campaign Items

I believe that the campaign consisted of Saginaw supplying steering shafts, spacers, clamps, nuts, and bolts. The dealer was to disassemble the column and replace the steering shaft with the supplied new parts. I do not know if the column needed to be removed from the car or not to make this change.

We know that the 1967 C2 started production with steering column 5698346. This column had a snap ring, a groove in the lower steering shaft, and a plastic threaded adjuster to take up steering column to steering shaft stackup. This column should have an alpha code sticker up near the column head with the 5698346 part number and the code "TO".


In most cases drawing changes take months to reach actual production. But in the case of a safety related campaign, actual hardware may be ahead of the drawing releases. So if you find a 1967 C2 with the alpha code sticker up near the column head with the part number 7802101 and "TO" it could have been manufactured with the clamp or it could be a dealer installed campaign part with the clamp.

Here is an interesting thought. GM assembly plants can only keep track of part number changes. They do not track revision levels or dates. If 7802101 was in production and changed to the clamp design, the St. Louis assembly plant would not have a paper work trail as to the actual change date. So 7802101 might have been used to implement the change on a ASAP basis. And the new part number 7803156 was introduced in February to officially track the change.

Jim

Jim,

That sounds more like what may have happened instead of an entire steering column replacement under a campaign/recall. Pretty sure I would have remembered that.
The only thing I do remember about 67 or 68 column campaigns/recalls was something about the plastic adjuster sleeve on Corvette and pass car but that was likely part of the campaign/repair that you describe.

You are exactly right about the timing of changes at the assembly plant. Some changes are shown in AIM's but don't actually occur in production weeks or more BUT, if it has to do with safety (brakes, steering etc) it may have occured on the assembly line before the AIM date.

I'd like to see the paperwork on this if anyone has it. If so, we may learn if this was actually a recall, a campaign or just a notice to dealers to repair/correct on a complaint/visual inspection basis.
This one sounds like it may have been either a recall or a campaign.
If it was an official recall or campaign, every owner would receive a card in the mail that instructed him to bring the vehicle to any Chevrolet dealer for repair/correction.
The dealers were required to submit to the GM zone office the VIN numbers of all vehicles inspected/corrected.