Corvette C6 Column Lock Eliminator

With my vette getting older it was just a matter of time before the dreaded steering column lock issue would would become a serious problem. The truth is it has happened to me a few times. Always in hot weather, always at the most inconvenient time. So I finally decommisioned the stupid thing by installing the Column Lock Eliminator offered by Corvettes of Houston. A small electronic component that tells the column module to leave things alone in the column lock. A pretty simple installation that went without a glitch. Hope this small component lasts the life of the car.

Time to burn some rubber!

The plastic bezel came out easily by pulling it gently toward the steering wheel. The brackets that hold it together are clearly visible in this image.

Two electric connectors on the left side had to come out in order to
be able to rotate the plastic bezel to get it out of the way.

The black connector goes to the dimmer switch.

The blue connector is for the heads up display buttons.

With the wiring disconnected it was easy to carefully rotate the panel and set it on the center console. I used towels to prevent scratching the center console as sugested in the instructional video. Not that it hasn't gotten scratched before...

With the four screws that hold the instrument cluster removed I was able to pull it out but did not find enough clerance to remove it completely as suggested so I supported it from the visor with a small bunge cord to get it out of the way.

There was limited space but I was able to reach in and carefully pull the module out. After that it was a simple job to disconnect the ribbon and install the bypass circuit that will fool the module into thinking that all is well with the steering column lock. Putting everything back together is a simple job.

Here is Corvettes of Houston video in case your are considering doing this to yours...