any tips, tricks, help and or diagrams to replacing the whole steering colum on my 97 f-150 with tilt, cruise and air bag?

sure can use it . . .

 

There's not much to it, but here are some pics & diagrams. In short: remove the 4 big nuts pointing straight down under the dash & the 1 bolt from the u-joint at the firewall above the brake pedal, & unplug the wiring, and it drops right out. You don't have to do anything special with the airbag; it's totally safe.

Why are you replacing the whole column???

 

the housing assembly that holds the outer races of the bearings down below the steering wheel are all worn out (to much play in the steering wheel) my ford wrench man said it would be cheaper to replace the whole column (from a junk yard $150.00) than it would be to pay him to replacing the internals at $45.00+ an hour plus parts!