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Steering wheel repair
Posted: Fri Oct 27, 2023 1:46 pm
by metalguy
Hey guys, my 646 (1973) now has a cracked steering wheel hub. Under difficult steering, it will "skip" on the splines now. What I want to know is, has anyone found a good way to repair one? I thought about perhaps drilling , and tapping for threads to pull the crack together, but wanted to know if anyone has had success in repairing one already. The wheel is in good shape otherwise. -----Metalguy
Re: Steering wheel repair
Posted: Fri Oct 27, 2023 3:50 pm
by Eugen
I got one of those myself and have been thinking about fixing it, but haven't done it yet. The way I was thinking of doing it was to ground a channel all around and tighten a collar on it, and also drill through from one side to the other with a 1/4" bolt and nut through it. Maybe someone else got a better idea, I'm all ears.
Re: Steering wheel repair
Posted: Sat Oct 28, 2023 6:06 am
by DavidBarkey
I too have one like that that I had to take off . I saved it in hopes to fixing it . Seeing as it is injected moulded around the steel centre. My thought was to hot wire weld the crack back together , then support steering wheel and the centre hub . Then transferring heat to it through the hub support (bolt or something ) to melt the plastic around it again the cooling it off to lock it in .
The other thought I had was to make a mould from old wheel . Then make a steel skeleton ,locking it in the mould and pouring in a 2 part epoxy like how the old school steering wheels were made .
As thoughts go , that's what I have had . But that is as far as I have got .
Re: Steering wheel repair
Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2023 3:01 pm
by metalguy
I think I will drill aq hole through the wheel, and shaft, and put a through bolt in there, cinching up the crack. My newly aquired one has that already done to it by a prior owner, and it seems to work well. -----Metalguy
Re: Steering wheel repair
Posted: Sat Nov 11, 2023 8:55 am
by Harry
On my 646 when I got it the steering wheel it was in rough shape. Plastic wheel was cracked in many places so I decided to replace it. I cut off the spokes of the wheel and fabricated a hub to bolt on a custom steering wheel. My first car was a 1957 Chevy Belair 2 door sedan. I sold it to my older brother and he wrecked it.
Before taking it to the junk yard I put the OEM wheel back on and removed the custom wheel I originally installed. I installed it on the 646 with a cover over the wheel. It works fine even though it’s not OEM. I’ll take a pic today and attach it here later today.
Harry