Steering Wheel??

[travelinman31]

Are most all Ford truck steering wheels interchangeable? I'd like to put a later year model steering wheel on my truck (my column is fine). It is tilt wheel with cruise control. Is this a fairly simple change out? Purely a comfort decision.

 

[Knuckledragger]

Ah, don't like the pencil thin steering wheel? I sometimes think about change, too.

 

[travelinman31]

It looks bigger than it feels

 

[MIDNIGHT RIDER]

So far as later model steering-wheels go, I really like the one on my 1985.

Nothing any later appeals to me.

I wish it were a couple inches larger diameter, though.

I really like the one on my 1972 HI-BOY.


If the wheel feels slim to you, add one of those leather covers.

I have even seen them padded under the leather.


I just can't abide those puffy spongy sweaty steering-wheels on many of the later trucks = too much like a ***-wagon.

 

[OLDBULL8]

I hate that damn steeringwheel on my 99, a little sweat on dirty hands and it sticks like glue. I keep a spray bottle of windshield wash fluid so I can clean it off once a week. Oh and a roll of paper towels.

My GF was driving my truck and showed me her dirty hands, said why don't you clean it. Some women get nasty in there old age, but she is only 70.

 

[LCAM-01XA]

IIRC a steering wheel from a similar-vintage E-series van would be thicker. Then a wheel from a bricknose "should" work on an '80s slantnose cause the columns are virtually the same - those wheels also tend to be fatter as well. But anything '92 and newer, probably not gonna happen, cause the column is way different.

 

[Blind Driver2]

It looks bigger than it feels

That's what she said.

 

[Agnem]

The Moose Truck had the 83' thin rim steering wheel. After about 25 years, I replaced it with the thicker one off of an 86. I struggled with the morality of it... changing out a wheel that only I had ever touched, for one with countless hands having been on it. I felt like I was renaming a boat. For a year or so I thought some evil might befall me or the truck, but superstition was eventually surpressed and all is well. I do like the thicker wheel much better.

 

[Knuckledragger]

That's what she said.

I am glad someone else went there.

 

[Diesel_brad]

like LCAM said, a van wheel, or a Lariat wheel from the 80s is thicker too

 

[MIDNIGHT RIDER]

>>> QUESTION <<<

I was gonna start a new thread, but my question fits well in here and we are already talking steering-wheels.


On my 1985, I am soon going to be pulling the wheel in order to gut EVERYTHING electric and get rid of that pot-metal column-lock pin thingie.

It has been many a moon since I had the wheel off of this truck.

My question :

Is there a fat "key" spline on the shaft that keeps the wheel indexed, or do I need to scribe it ??


Thanks.

 

[Diesel_brad]

Midnight, you have to scribe it

 

[MIDNIGHT RIDER]

Midnight, you have to scribe it

That is good to know BEFORE one pops it loose and loses his place.

The 1st. Gen. Dodge I had apart last weekend had a keyed spline, so no trouble keeping it indexed.

Thanks.

 

[oldblue05]

I also had a question about steering wheels that would go good here, does anyone have an aftermarket wheel? If so what?

 

[MIDNIGHT RIDER]

I also had a question about steering wheels that would go good here, does anyone have an aftermarket wheel? If so what?

I ain't got it yet, but the wife's truck is getting one of the "classic" series 3-spoke walnut-rimmed 15-inchers from GRANT.

I searched and searched for a similar wheel in 17-inch, but no find.


I never imagined steering-wheels could be so costly, until I started looking.