Steering wheel Q's

[not-a-stang]

I replaced my original Capri's busted cruise control Steering Wheel with one that came out of a '79. It looks like a Pace Car's (has the old style ford emblem) steering wheel. The problem is that it puts the turn signals like 4-5" away from my hands.

So I picked up a free SW out of a 89 Mustang. It looks like it has a different sleeve where the steering shaft goes. The old one has splines in the SW that mate up with the ones on the shaft. The newer one does not. It has these two protrusions that seem to catch the splines on the shaft. I can torque down the big bolt and force it to fit, but will it come loose? Or do I need another steering wheel?

[negusm]

You need a steering wheel with the splines....anything else is just foolish to try and make "fit".

They changed to a D shaped shaft in like 83 so you probably need a 79-83 or 79-82 wheel or something.

Rereading your post...did they switch back to splines again?

-Mike

[Travis T]

No, they didn't change back to splines. Your only real option is to get a different steering wheel for a splined shaft, or put an 83-86 column in your car, which isn't that hard to do.

[mcb82gt]

Let me know if you want to get rid of the 79 steering wheel :) :)

[v8only]

ruben, I so happen to have an extra column from the last 86gt we parted. It's attached to a steering wheel that corey's gonna use, but that means we'll have an extra column if you're interested.

[not-a-stang]

Thanks Jeremy. I'll try an pick it up soon. Are you going to Brother's Dyno Day on Saturday? Or is it Sunday?

[v8only]

dunno if i'm going at all, it's tomorrow. I was to spend all day working on my notch, and of course it rained, and I'm not gonna stand in the rain for four hours to fix a damn intake leak, so I'm working on the garage now. about the only thing I have to dyno is my work truck, a ford escape, and i'm not wasting $35 dynoing the vert.

I'll have to find out which column corey wants first, the one in his car now, or this one, then he's got to swap, so it may not be ready immediately[/u]

[LTDScott]

I have a Momo wheel on my car which put the turn signal stick too far from my hands, but I found an easy fix.

Late 80s Escorts and Tempos used a big steering wheel that looks like an airbag wheel but isn't. They too were too far from the turn signal stalk, so on those cars the stalks are bent backwards so they're still within finger reach. The stalk will swap right into the standard 80s Ford turn signal switch unit. Just pull it right out. Worked like a charm on my car.

The only caveat is if your car uses the turn signal stalk for the horn (press in) instead of a button on the wheel, this stalk won't work because the rod that goes into the switch is at an angle.