David Jenkins
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| posted on 15/5/11 at 08:45 PM |
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Isn't it amazing how jobs can escalate...
As I've said elsewhere, I've been working on my steering wheel.
It started off with me wanting my wheel a little closer, as I was stretching my arms just a bit too far. This relatively simple job has
escalated...
- I decided that it would be good to have the horn push in the middle of the wheel (my existing boss wouldn't allow that) as my current horn
switch was a bit inconvenient (I kept sounding the horn when I turned the ignition key with winter gloves on).
- I won a Momo boss on eBay which had the necessary slip rings. It was also a little taller than the old one, which was a bonus.
- When the boss arrived, I realised that the holes for the wheel were at the modern standard of 70mm PCD. My Astrali wheel - which is quite old -
has a 4" PCD (100-and-a-bit mm).
- I now had to make an adaptor, which had the added advantage of moving the wheel even closer - but I didn't have a suitable bit of
aluminium.
- I had to go to Chelmsford - 35 miles away - to buy a piece of 10mm aluminium plate (wife and I made it a day out and went to various places that
day).
- I then machined the adaptor in my lathe (which I enjoyed doing).
- I adjusted the horn wiring - very easy as I had the Sierra slip ring connector that I just had to splice into the existing wiring (also a
reasonably fun job).
- Assembled the hub and wheel, then tried it on the car - the Momo hub alignment is 30 degrees out from the Astrali one, when put on the Sierra
column.
- So I took the bonnet and nosecone off, then loosened the steering link so that I could shift the bottom UJ round on the spline until the wheel was
straight again (had to do this twice, as my first effort didn't get it quite right).
- I then had to blank off the hole where the old horn switch used to be.
Now my wheel is around 25mm - 30mm closer, and it's much more comfortable. Trouble is, I've found one or two more things that need
doing...
- The indicator doesn't cancel as reliably as it used to. This is a nuisance, because I can't see the warning lights any more, as moving
the wheel back has put it exactly between my eyes and the lights.
- I will now have to raise the steering column a tad so I can see the lights again - and there's no easy adjustment. I will have to strip off
the cowling, undo the column, make the round holes oval, then re-assemble it all afterwards.
- The Sparco horn button doesn't have a nice badge - I can't find one I'd like to buy, so now I'm probably going to spin an
aluminium one on the lathe. This involves turning the right shape on the end of a bit of steel bar, making a support to go in the tailstock, then
forming the badge. I'll enjoy doing it, but what a time-waster!
It was meant to be such a simple job...
...anyone else had similar experiences? (I'm sure everyone has!)
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wylliezx9r
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| posted on 15/5/11 at 10:11 PM |
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Now that your an expert perhaps you can do mine for me lol. Always the same isn't it, that little job that's only going to take 5 minutes
ends up taking 5 days :-)
I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered.
George Best
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NigeEss
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| posted on 15/5/11 at 11:53 PM |
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Yup, know it well....................
Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.................Douglas Adams.
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mangogrooveworkshop
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| posted on 16/5/11 at 06:25 AM |
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I moved the steering wheel and ended up with new seats and rebuilding the footwells and moving the pedal s forward of the footwell. One week job ended
up taking 2 months.
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David Jenkins
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| posted on 16/5/11 at 07:20 AM |
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Lowering the seat is the alternative to raising the wheel! I'm not going down that route... 
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ashg
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| posted on 16/5/11 at 07:40 AM |
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sounds like my whole car tbh. im a gluten for punishment too as i spent the winter swapping the engine only to kill a little end on it a few
weeks ago and will have to do it all again. while the engine is out again i thought i would swap the steering rack from a 2.9 to a 2.4 which has
turned into an epic adventure as im going to have to take out the oil cooler and rad to get at the thing. which has prompted me to change the mounts
for my oil cooler to make it easier to get in and out, which has then prompted a new set of oil cooler hoses to reach the new position, and as it was
all apart i thought well i may as well add an accu sump system too. so two weeks in and detling isn't looking like its going to happen in the
kit.
guess its all just part of ownership
Anything With Tits or Wheels Will cost you MONEY!!
Haynes Roadster (Finished)
Exocet (Finished & Sold)
New Project (Started)
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David Jenkins
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| posted on 26/5/11 at 03:46 PM |
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I finally finished the job!
The final work to reach this point included:
* Elongating the steering column mounting holes so that I could raise the wheel a little and see the warning lights.
* Bending the indicator arm so that I could actually reach it while driving (as I'd moved the wheel back a fair bit).
* Cutting a new notch in the bottom hub of the Momo steering wheel boss so that the indicator cancelling cam actually sat where Ford intended it to
sit (considering how much Momo bosses cost when new, I'd have thought that they would have got that one right).
* Making a washer to sit behind the indicator cancelling cam so that the boss didn't scrape on part of the inner steering column gubbins (not
sure if that was Momo's fault, or because of the way I set things up).
* Making a badge for the horn push (described elsewhere).
Add that little lot to the first list of 'jobs to do' and it comes to a lot of work for what was meant to be 'a simple little
job'!
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