Steering Column Repair: 1977 Chevy 3/4 Ton Pickup Column Shift AT, odd intervals, salvage yards

Question
I just bought a truck and have trouble with being able to correctly find the gears. I checked the linkage and unhooked it, everything seems to work smooth on the transmission, however, the lever on the column is very sloppy and I can't get it to shift into L1, it simply won't move that far. The gears are spaced at odd intervals, just very sloppy, the column is now sitting on my dinner table and I have it torn down to the ignition switch section directly under the blinker assembly and I can't seem to get it torn down any further than that, can I repair the shift mechanism or do I need a new column?

Answer
Hi Alden:
This one is a little too old for me to know what may be wrong inside.
If you want to shop for a used column, try this site.  You may be able to find what you need.

www.car-part.com
It's the website all the salvage yards use when they say "Hang on--let me see if my other yard has it".  Actually it's an online database of all the salvage yards in America.  You can search by part, location or price

Good luck
Doug