Hey Guys, I asked about this on another HAMBer's thread who was asking a similar but different question. Because I didn't want to hijack his thread, I figured I should start my own. I have taken the time to search the HAMB for an answer and I have looked at Speedway and other places on the interwens but cannot find what I am looking for. I want to put an early Corvette steering wheel in my '46 Ford coupe. I also want to be able to put everything back to stock if I want to, so I have been trying to find a bolt-n solution. The adapter that I have in mind would have a female taper that would fit over the end of the stock keyed steering shaft and then have a splined GM shaft to accept the Corvette hub so that I can mount the wheel. Oh yeah, I want the whole works to be fairly low profile so the wheel doesn't end up too far away from the stock steering wheel location as it relates to driver position. I was thinking this would need to be a two piece adapter. The bottom half would bolt onto the stock keyed taper of the Ford steering shaft and the upper half would in turn bolt onto the lower half and would have the GM splined shaft stub to mount the Corvette hub and wheel. I've got an idea on how to design it if I have to do that, but if this has already been done I don'r want to "re-invent the wheel" either. Sooooo...anybody have one of these laying around or know where I can find something like this? Thanks in advance for any help you can offer. Thor
And now...something completely different... One day I was walking and I found this big log. Then I rolled the log over and underneath was a tiny little stick and I was like, "That log had a child!"
If?, it were me. So not to have to make a filler collar to fill the space between the steering column bell and the Corvette steering wheel and not have it in my chest. I'd cut the 46 shaft within the column tube (somewhere mid length) then add a new or old GM shaft to it so the Vette wheel fit's nice to the 46's bell.
Assuming it's a C2 or C3 Corvette steering wheel! Why don't you get a whole new centre made for the steering wheel from Aluminium [6 bolts for the wheel, and a ford taper in the centre]
You can get an adaptor to fit the keyed Ford shaft. Its for a generic 3 bolt wheel. After that you're on your own. I'm looking to put a splined wheel on a keyed Ford shaft and have decided to take the centre out of the splined wheel. There's folks that will tell you that you can cut a keyway into a splined wheel and fit it on a Ford shaft. Last time I checked the tapers were different and it was a very sloppy fit
Thanks for the responses guys. The wheel is out of a '58 'Vette and I have the hub, bell, horn parts, and turn signal mechanism (basically ALL of the parts from the end of the column) from a '56. For now, I would like to just get the wheel adapted to my column quickly. I have considered both machining a completely redesigned adapter of my own, or making the taper to 3 bolt adapter that Speedway sells work. I was just hoping that somebody might have done this already and could direct me to a "quick" solution. Right now I have a Signal Stat 800 for turn signals but eventually I would like to convert the end of my column over to use the entire 'Vette turn signal and steering hub assembly.
I understand the "now" idea. We've all done it, even me. Isn't following your master plan less work in the end? Buy the way. Do you have a stock steering box or a modern steering box with a coupler?
ok.. lots of "if's" here i know, but i am looking at making a wheel change to my 30 A with a 51 f1 wheel and column here is what i have found out so far. 51 F1 Truck is splined but 50 and some 51 cars are not. However, both shafts are 3/4" diameter. also, some GM spline wheels will fit ford spline columns. so... if you change your current keyed shaft to a spline shaft (straight Ford parts swap?), and If your vette wheel has the same spline and shaft diameter as the ford spline shaft that you just put in, you are good to go. As i said, lots of "If's" but it would allow you to go back to stock fairly easily. i gleaned most of this info from the ford barn by searching F1 steering wheel... i could be way off base on this and i am sure i will be corrected if i am. but it might be worth looking at. Chappy
Johnny my '46 is all stock at this point. Believe me I know that trying to cut corners will usually blow up in your face! Chappy, I was not aware that Ford used splined columns that early. I will do some research on that. Switching or adapting the shaft may be an option. It looks like I have another bunch of homework to do. Thanks guys .
So I fully understand (I think) what the O.P. (Thor1) want's to do and how he described how he wants things to be. Here is your biggest problem and I quote, "I also want to be able to put everything back to stock if I want to, so I have been trying to find a bolt-n solution". Think about this and once you answer it you'll understand why you can't find one. To tighten the adapter if you had one and for it to stay in place you need to have the Key way in place. You need to tighten or squeeze the adapter onto the tapper to lock it in. That's the Job of the Nut holding the Ford wheel on the shaft. If the Adapter was threaded inside to replace the Ford nut you couldn't use the Key to lock it in place and the adapter would eventually come loose from just the act of driving and said Vett wheel would no longer be controlling the rotation of the steering box. How you gonna get around that? Something has to be permanently modified and that's not what your wanting to do, right? If you had one that could mount and stay locked in place it would add at bare minimum 2" to the length of the shaft. You don't want that, right? You would also need said adapter to be hollow in the center for the Horn wire, right? This would end up being a very complex little piece and not Cheep to produce. To gear up to produce there has to be a Market for them in the Hundreds (think Grant wheel adapters) where's that Market today? Are you getting the picture? So now you have your own vision of what one may look like. Go find a Machine shop willing to build one for you. Shop labor will range from $60.oo to $100.oo an Hour. My guess is you'll be in the $300.oo price range "IF" someone can actually make such a part. Keep us posted. The Wizzard
Wizzard, That's why I was thinking of a two piece adapter. The bottom half would fit and bolt onto the stock Ford taper and keyway using the standard nut, and then in turn the top half would bolt onto the bottom half and provide the transition to a GM splie stub shaft. The top half of the adapter would need a counterbore to fit over the end of the stock Ford steering shaft and nut. I have been involved in the design and build of industrial laser equipment for over thirty years as an engineer and have also had about that same amount of experience in the machine shop where I work. So I am fully versed in the costs of production and labor. I will probably need to design my own unit, I was just hoping someone out there had done this transition and had made an adapter to go from the stock Ford steering shaft to the GM spline. Speedway sells an adapter to go from the Ford taper to a 3 bolt mount - this part or one similar to it could serve as the starting point for the adapter I am thinking of. I will indeed keep you posted as I think about this some more.
Hay, that's good that your a hands on in the machine shop kind of guy. I usually tell guys to make a choice between Stock or Hot Rod and move on. I try to never say it can't be done. I will say I don't think this part has ever been made before. I'll be watching for an up-date. The Wizzard
Post up some pics of this stuff. It's not like everyone knows exactly what it looks like or has all that stuff in front of them. I don't know of any adapter, Maybe something like this could work Get oversize hex, tap one for the ford shaft thread, put the GM stub on the other. Put it on the ford shaft with a deep socket and drill the new part and the ford shaft for a cross pin. You might need a longer collar on the wheel to cover it up. Should go right back to stock by pulling the pin and unscrewing it. The cross drilled hole won't bother the stock ford stuff.
Any adapter is going to raise the wheel up closer to your chest or belly. I've got a wheel that is too deep on my 48 and it is a pain but I kept telling myself that I would change it "someday". Personally I am going to say that the " I might want to change it back to stock someday" stuff says that you should leave well enough alone and run a Ford wheel on it and be done with it. If I had the machine equipment and skill and the want I'd have pulled the box out. taken it apart and chucked the steering shaft in a lathe and trimmed it down so I could mate the trimmed down end of the Chevy shaft to it. There are a couple of ways you could do that but the Joe Honest way would be to machine flats on the Ford shaft for a double D and use the top piece of a Chevy shaft that has the other half of the double D. Slip it together to the correct length drill and pin it and you are good. I've got a bunch of 70 something Chevy columns out here but think they are all tilt so I can't take one apart before it heads to the scrap yard to see what the innards look like and if it is viable. I ran a 59 Corvette wheel in my 48 for a number of years until some Corvette guy wanted it a lot more than I did. Those wheels are skinny and can get tiresome to drive if you are used to fatter steering wheels. Best looking wheel I ever had in the 48 but I thought about putting a cover on it a lot of times.
Did you come up with a plan? I had a 40s Lincoln wheel with a welded in gm spline hub. Then restored and painted it up. Looked pretty and worked. Other than you might not want to mess up a Vette wheel you could weld in a tapered hub. Would that work ?
I have not come up with a plan yet. This is going to happen but I probably won't be able to commit any time to it until this fall. Once I get the project underway I will post here with the progress. Thanks for checking back.
Have done several 40 columns for a splined top wheel. Some I used a 55-57 top half and a double d out the bottom. Others I used a splined chevy shaft at top and Ford shaft out the bottom. Then use a 55-57 top bearing with horn wire. Done a few each way.
I put a Corvette wheel in a Ford truck by drilling and tapping an 1/8" metal plate to match the six screws in the wheel and drilling it for a Grant adapter and horn button.
I’ve been toying with this idea for a while as well. I’ve got an early ford column with a 46-8 Merc wheel that I want to switch to a 51 chevy wheel. The taper on the ford shaft is 7°. Same as a ball joint reamer. My thought is (in order to be able to go back to a ford wheel if I desire to) is to ream the smaller chevy spline to the 7° taper and cut the key way into the chevy wheel. No change would be required or bulky adapters. I want to keep the wheel as low/close to stock position as I can to eliminate a gap from column tube to wheel and no adapter would allow that. Just my two cents… cutting the keyway could be tricky with hand tools but definitely possible. Or if a machine shop would try it I’m sure they could knock something like this out fairly fast.
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