I recently saw a small Repo 56 Ford steering wheel at a car show vender booth, and asked about buying one. He told me that the small diameter Ford wheels were made to fit the popular GM tilt columns. If true that would explain why the problem with the spline fit on a Thunderbird column. So does anyone have a Ford and a GM wheel to compare? Or have anymore info on this?
Smaller repo Steering Wheel
- Thread starter ventport
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50fordcoupeman
Well-known member
Do a search for an adapter, if that is your question?
miker98038
Well-known member
I have a friend who had the smaller repop wheel on a 57 bird. It went on and lined up fine, it came from one of the bird suppliers.
Not knowing what wheel you were looking at I looked up the Crestliner reproduction. It and many other of the wheels are available with different adapters, you have to click “fitment” to see that.
Better have a double adult beverage before you click the link and see the price on this one.
https://www.limeworksspeedshop.com/Crestliner-Steering-Wheel-White-Kit-p/st3031wte.htm
Not knowing what wheel you were looking at I looked up the Crestliner reproduction. It and many other of the wheels are available with different adapters, you have to click “fitment” to see that.
Better have a double adult beverage before you click the link and see the price on this one.
https://www.limeworksspeedshop.com/Crestliner-Steering-Wheel-White-Kit-p/st3031wte.htm
I posted the same question on the Hamb, and got this answer.
"So I counted the splines and got 39 on the ford one and 36 on a Gm one. They both measured .685 with a caliper strait across with the caliper in the "innie" part of the splines."
The suppliers of the small diameter steering wheels must make two different ones, one for Ford and one for GM columns.
"So I counted the splines and got 39 on the ford one and 36 on a Gm one. They both measured .685 with a caliper strait across with the caliper in the "innie" part of the splines."
The suppliers of the small diameter steering wheels must make two different ones, one for Ford and one for GM columns.
The steering wheel is your choice, of course, but.......remember that those dep dish steering wheels were part of the Lifeguard safety stuff that Ford and Cornell University worked together on. The idea of the deep dish steering wheel ( for those too young to remember) was that in case of a crash, the driver would hit the rim of the steering wheel first and that would dissipate some of the crash energy before impqacting the center of the steering wheel with the solid steel shaft straight to the steering gear box.
The choice is yours.
The choice is yours.