I am trying to replace the steering column in an '85 K5 - picked up a tilt wheel at the wrecking yard, it fits in place OK, but I have two problems;
1. there doesn't seem to be a neutral safety switch on my original K5 column, but there is one on the new column, so the wiring harness won't fit
2. after installing the new column, it will shift if the key is on and the engine isn't running, but if you start it, you can't shift into any gear. Is this because the neutral safety switch on the column has to be hot?

Very frustrating -Any help is appreciated!

dcc

the neutral safety switch on the 85 is at the base of the column on the top side.if your truck doesn't have it, someone has removed it and jumped the connector(only possible way that the truck could have started before the swap) find out what the tilt column came from and we can go from there.