The rod just slides into the switch before you mount it to your column(slot is on the part that slides inside the switch). On my 72 I replaced my original column with a tilt column. When I went to hook up the plug for the wiring it was backwards, or so I thought. Took the switch off the non tilt column and put it on the tilt column and the column lock worked backwards. I had to switch back to the switch that come on the tilt column and twist the harness 180 degrees and all was well.