Dropping the steering colunm

I'm in the middle of the dreaded evap core replacement and I'm stuck on dropping the steering column. I took the two nuts off the studs that appear to hold it up but its not coming down. The last time I did this type of work on another vehicle the column came right down after loosening the nuts. Should it have dropped right down or will I need to convince it a bit? Is there anything else holding it in place? Thanks in advance.

You'll need to use persuasion to both drop it and get it back into place. This set me back a bit when I did this last month, thinking force shouldn't be needed, but all the research and replies I got were use persuasion. Hammer and punch. Go at it, just don't be stupid.

Thanks, I had that feeling but wanted to be sure before "persuading" it down.

First off, what year is the vehicle. Things change between years.

I run an older vehicle and I have never had to force anything to pull the column.

It's a 2001

Mine was a 2001, use persuasion.