OK.  Now anyone who gives a damn about the purpose of shear bolts, get out
your Bentley or take a look under your dash at the steering column.  Don't
worry, you don't have to climb under the van because everything you have to
see is above floor level.  Near floor level, coming up through the steering
column boot is the lower column.  It is a cranked shaft with a two hole
flange on its end.  The flange has 2 pins facing downward permanently fixed
to it.  The upper column has a two hole flange on its bottom end which mates
to the lower column flange.  This is a slip joint which appears to be
designed to come apart during a frontal collision.  If others had the same
experience as I did the first time I removed the shear bolts, the steering
column slipped out of the lower column bracket spring clip and separated at
this slip fitting.

I think Terry is right in saying that the steering column tube mounting bolts
(i.e., the shear bolts) shearing will do you no good in a headon.  In fact it
seems to me that these bolts are designed to do the exact opposite: they are
supposed to keep the steering column tube in its place.  If the floor is
coming up at you, the flanged joint comes apart.  If you go hard against the
steering wheel the plastic spacer at the top of the steering column crushes
to absorb the energy, the steering column slides in the steering column tube
and the slip joint at the bottom, again, comes apart.  So, as Mark said, they
are to prevent tampering.  If the steering column tube slips it takes the
steering column inside of it along for the ride and the flanged slip joint
comes apart.  That's not something you want to happen when all you wanted to
do was run down to the package store for a six pack.

Rich