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steering wheel contact ring spacers


ahardb0dy
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I've been asked how I made the spacers I am using to make the contact ring on the back of the steering wheel make better contact with the pins on the steering column.

 

So I pulled my steering wheel and took the contact ring off, removed the spacers, measured them, took pictures of everything and put it back together. Instead of replying to the PM I figured I would share here to everyone.

 

 

This came about as my cruise and horn would not always work, this was my fix as it was simple and cheap to do, both the cruise and horn now work perfectly and everytime, no matter the position of the steering wheel. My steering wheel may have a damaged part which is causing this problem but I did not have another one to compare the parts too, so I came up with this solution.

 

 

Anyway, I removed the steering wheel and the 3 screws that hold the contact ring onto the back of the steering wheel,

 

I than cut 3 spacers made from 1/4" diameter copper tubing. I bought a 6" length of copper tubing from my local Ace Hardware, I bought 6" as it allowed me to make extra spacers of different thicknesses to experiment and it was cheap.

 

Of course a tubing cutter cuts the tubing easily and a file will flatten out the cut end

 

I than inserted the 3 spacers in the holes on the rear of the steering wheel and inserted the contact ring back onto the rear of the steering wheel

 

re-installed the 3 screws, ( longer screws may be needed if the stock ones do not reach, on mine 2 were long enough, one was not)

 

re-installed the steering wheel and took truck for a test drive, cruise and the horn now worked as they should and the contact ring being spaced out does not cause any adverse effects when turning the steering wheel, no rubbing sounds and wheel turns as easily as it did before the spacers were installed.

 

Pictures below:

 

steering wheel removed showing pins:

 

555rgp.jpg

 

 

back of steering wheel showing contact ring spaced out:

 

2hwckg3.jpg

 

 

copper spacers:

 

6h3nue.jpg

 

 

tubing cutter and copper tubing:

 

359l7wy.jpg

 

 

spacer in caliper to show thickness:

 

zlosd2.jpg

 

 

caliper gauge showing aprox 13/64's thickness:

 

2i8vwu9.jpg

 

 

conversion chart:

 

33cp6ya.jpg

 

 

screws to remove to remove contact ring:

 

mlqdna.jpg

 

 

contact ring removed:

 

11jywjp.jpg

 

 

copper spacer in hole on back of steering wheel:

 

2mq69nm.jpg

 

 

 

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contact ring set back in place, hold the ring when flipping steering wheel over than insert 3 screws and tighten:

 

1zzqdnc.jpg

 

 

contact ring spaced out pic again:

 

9av490.jpg

 

that's it worked for me !!

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You can also use a "grey abrasive" eraser on the rings too to clean them up so they make bettrer contact with the pins too. Just wipe any eraser residue away with a cloth with meths on it. :lmao:

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Yep...I did That with washers...my pins were worn from a really crappy set of tires that had a bad belt in them...they were brand new but I didn't buy them so the warranty didn't transfer but long story short I had to do the same thing...my tell tell was the horn/cruise and all the copper dust on the steering column

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You have cailpers that read in 64ths of an inch!! :rofl:

That totally defeats the porpoise of calipers!

 

The green ring, that must be in mm, not inches. It looks like 5.2mm...

13/64=.203"

5.2mm=.204"

That tells me the green dial of the calipers is even mislabeled! :rofl:

 

Good write up and it will help people with this issue, but throw out that plastic joke stick and get one of these (just turn it off when not in use)

http://www.harborfreight.com/6-inch-digital-caliper-47257.html

If you insist on old school...

http://www.harborfreight.com/6-inch-dial-caliper-66541.html

 

B

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the outer green ring is inches, not Metric, if the caliper is showing .50 it's 1/2 an inch, same scale as the second one you linked to.

 

I know it's cheap I picked it up at Home Depot I think.

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  • 5 months later...

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