Will this steering wheel work?

[Hot Rod Reverend]

Fellas,

Has anyone taken a reproduction 55-57 Thunderbird steering wheel and used it on a 55/56 Ford passenger car steering column? If so, did you need to make any modifications?

No one to my knowledge reproduces a 56 Ford steering wheel and of course the bakelite dries out and cracks over the years. I repaired my wheel but it now has new cracks in other places. I would rather go with a reproduction wheel and I do like the looks of a Tbird steering wheel.

thanks

 

[Dobie Gillis]

If the shaft diameter and spline count are the same for both vehicles it should fit. The repop 'Bird wheels are smaller diameter than your passenger car wheel. You will lose some leverage with a smaller wheel which you will notice if you have armstrong steering; with power steering the reduced leverage would be barely noticeable. My $.02.

 

[Lamar Wadsworth]

You can still find decent original '55 and '56 wheels out there. If you don't have power steering, you will miss the leverage of the big wheel. I remember high school days when a lot of guys put those dinky little small diameter steering wheels on '50s cars and discovered that they were hard to steer and hard to hold in the road!

 

[dmsfrr]

If I'm not mistaken about the full-sized Fords the '55 steering wheels were a 2 spoke 'flat' style wheel.
The '56 & '57(?) were a 3 spoke style with about a 3 inch 'dish' to them on a slighter shorter steering column. The dished 3 spoke steering wheels (and shorter column) were part of the LifeGuard safety improvements introduced for '56. Shown at this link and in the 3rd photo...

http://oldcarbrochures.org/United%20States/Ford/1956%20Ford/1956_Ford_Fairlane_Victoria_Brochure/slides/1956_Ford_Fairlane_Victoria-04.html
.

 

[Hot Rod Reverend]

If I'm not mistaken about the full-sized Fords (very possible) the '55 steering wheels were a 2 spoke 'flat' style wheel.
The '56 & '57 were a 3 spoke style with about a 3 inch 'dish' to them on a slighter shorter steering column. The dished 3 spoke steering wheels (and shorter column) were part of the LifeGuard safety improvements introduced for '56. Shown at this link and in the 3rd photo...

http://oldcarbrochures.org/United%20States/Ford/1956%20Ford/1956_Ford_Fairlane_Victoria_Brochure/slides/1956_Ford_Fairlane_Victoria-04.html
.

agreed

but do you know if anyone has ever fitted the Tbird wheel to either a 55/56 Ford passenger car?

 

[dmsfrr]

agreed

but do you know if anyone has ever fitted the Tbird wheel to either a 55/56 Ford passenger car?

I only have 2 T-Bird examples and I've not had the oem steering wheel off of either of them. Never had my hands on a full-sized Ford steering wheel either.
If there's a reason it will or won't work, I don't have a clue.
The steering shaft splines may be the same but the spacing back to the outer column hardware from the back side of the wheel may be different.
The '55/'57 T-Birds all had a sleeved telescoping steering column.
There's a keyed spline at the upper end of the steering shaft.

The outer rim of the 'dished' style '56+ steering wheel will be closer to your chest if mounted on the (longer) '55 steering column.
.

 

[5851a]

Can you change to a 56 column if you want or find a good dished wheel? Sorry doesn't answer the original question.

 

[dmsfrr]

Can you change to a 56 column if you want or find a good dished wheel? Sorry doesn't answer the original question.

There's a good chance swapping a '56 steering column into a '55 may work. At least it does for the '55, '56 T-Birds. Their steering columns are similar enough that swapping them is not a real problem.
The full-sized Fords are likely a bit more of a challenge since the shifter linkage is part of the column.

Another potential steering parts swap that may be helpful???
In mid '56 Ford changed the internal parts of the steering boxes. The '55/'56 version has 2 teeth on the sector gear.
The '56/'57 version has 3 teeth on the sector gear. With the '3 tooth' box there is obviously more gear surface area and they don't wear out as quickly.

 

[miker98038]

I went and looked at the Summit site for Grant steering wheels. They no longer show the "installation" kit for the 55 bird, but they used to make it. For 56, they do, but it's different part numbers for the pass car and bird. That alone doesn't tell us much, it could be the splines/shaft or it could be just the column to wheel trim.

Maybe if you measure the width/depth of the trim and the size/splines some one with a 57 bird can supply matching info and give you a start. My bird column and wheel are in storage where I can't get to them right now, or I'd give you that fwiw.

 

[Daves55Sedan]

The '55 Bird wheel is a two-spoked semi-flat wheel with bare metal spokes which are covered up by the horn ring decorative spokes. Not sure if it was in '56 or '57 model year they went to a 3-spoke deep dish wheel. So you can't put one of those on a '55 steering column unless you don't care that the wheel rim is sticking way up in the air.
But if you swapped the whole steering column, you can probably get away with it.