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Restoring steering wheels

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Johnny

Johnny

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Has anyone ever replaced the splined hub in a steering wheel? I have two wheels, one is nice on the outside but the splines inside the hub are bad. The other is really bad on the outside, but the inside hub spline is perfect. It appears the spline portion is a bushing of some sort that can be pressed out and replaced. Which brings up another question, can you purchase such an animal?
As always, your time and experience is appreciated.
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Nope Johnny, never heard of anyone pullng that off.However, what is wrong with the splines in the wheel that is nice on the outside??.---Keoke
 
Hi Keoke, the splines are completely stripped out. I don't know how it happened. I've had it hanging on the wall of the garage for a long time. It's a nonadjustable wheel. I think I'm going to try and press out the bushing on the bad one, really no loss. If I'm successful I'll post some pictures.
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Johnny I would suspect that the splined hub was in the mold when the steering wheel center was cast around it. I have looked at an old one I have and it looks that way. You might end up with the outer cast part breaking when you try to press the center out.
 
I just looked at my old wheel. Original design, non-adjustable type. I have the center hub separate from the spokes & in two pieces. How it got that way, we won't go into. The entire hub is cast of one piece of alloy. The center is not separate. If your wheel, in fact, has a separate center bushing, it's possible that you could remove the bushing & replace it.

If there is no bushing, it would be possible to bore out the damaged hole on a lathe or vertical mill & replace it with a splined bushing.

Making the bushing with the proper splines would be a formidable task in itself. The whole project would be way more trouble than I'm willing to go through.

Good luck,
D
 
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