Installation of my new wheel

When I purchased my car, the three spoke wheel was a bit tattered. In addition the headlight selector stalk/turn signal stalk was not functioning properly. The PO had the new stalk but had not installed it. So the plan was hatched to get the wheel taken care of and fix the stalk at the same time since access to the stalk requires removal of the steering wheel.

As my projects progressed and I installed my 8-ball shifter I really began to feel the need for something more stylish and functional in terms of a steering wheel. I had also discovered at the track that the stock steering wheel was a bit far away from me for my preferences. Now the plan was to get a MOMO wheel and a spacer so that I could get a better driving position and freshen the looks at the same time.

For those of you contemplating this same move I have provided some info which I hope will be very useful for you, including how much a given spacer moves the wheel in relation to stock. Below are two sets of info, the first is a "how to" on selecting steering wheel size and spacer to suit you and the second a "how to" for getting the thing installed.

Selecting the wheel for you.

Selecting steering wheel style is a personal choice as is size of the wheel. I went with the larger MOMO wheel as the car is still used as a street driver and is a full bodied car, there was no reason to install some tiny 300mm cart racing steering wheel.

My choice for steering wheel was close between the Competition, Race and the Champion. They are fairly similar in style and price. I went for the champion because it had extra bulges and I like them. The styling is a bit different with three leather textures on it but it looks very cool and purposeful.

The next choice was the length of spacer to go with and the style of hub. After talking with Nathan at GPR for some time I decided to get the hub that they sell normally as well as a small(15mm) spacer. The cost of both was $65.

The standard adapter hub actually moved the wheel out a small bit from the dash.

The stock wheel had 4cm of clearance between it and the dash.

The standard hub with the MOMO Champion wheel mounted measured @ 4.25 cms of space(I did not fully tighten the wheel to determine exact distance)

The standard hub with the 15mm adapter gives me a full 5.75 cms of clearnce (this indicates that the wheel is now a full 1.75 cms closer to me than stock)

All of the gauges are visible (at least as visible as they were) and the controls are not too far away from the wheel for street driving. A great combo for tall drivers to use in a dual purpose car!

That is about all the info I have on sizing, e-mail me if you have any specific questions and I will try to help.

Installation

The installation of the steering wheel is actually quite straightforward but the dircetions are rather vague and omit some important(IMHO) information.

Of course the first step is the removal of the old wheel.

Start by disconnecting your battery or you will get accidental honking that can be quite startling while handling the wires. You could also do damage to a varitey of thinsg depending on to what you accidentaly ground.

1:To remove the old wheel, first get the steering wheel straight. If your wheel is not straight(car doe snot track well) that is an alignment issue and should not be remedied by installing your wheel improperly.

2.Carefully pry of the center cover/hornpad (or twist of depending on your year)

3.Use a small dab of paint to indicate a reference point on your spline as the wheel will be disturbed during removal.

4.Loosen the center nut (I used a socket and pry bar, if using an impact, as always, be VERY careful)

5.Once the nut is off you should be able to free the wheel from the spline. Steering wheel pullers are nice bUt I did not need one to free the wheel.

6.Now you should be looking at the bare spline (marked for reference) and the steering column shorud. This is your chance to service the levers if need be.

Preparing your new wheel to go into the car

1.If you did not get a complete kit (wheel, hub adapter, horn button etc) I am no help so go away!

2.On the back of your stock steering wheel is a horn ring. It is important and you will need to remove it carefully. It also should have your blinker reset on it. (MOMO supplies a ring that can be used but it loses your blinker reset)

3.You MOMO adapter hub should have 3 tiny screws in it. These are to mount your horn ring to your hub. when you do this insure that the orinetation of "top" on the hub and the reset stalk on the horn ring are properly oriented.

looking straight on at the hub with top facing you and at the top the reset stub should be on the left hand side aka nine o'clock

4.The wire from the horn ring has a different size plug than the car (at least mine did) you will need to either cut the wire and put on a new end or modify it in some way to work (I left my stock end on against the situstaion that I ever need to reinstall my old wheel)

5.There are two tabs on the back of the MOMO horn button. one of these will attach to the horn ring, the other will ground to the hub adapter itself.

6.Once you are comfortable with what attaches where elctrically, you can install your hub on the car.(make sure that your spline is in the "straight" position). I test fit mine reconnected the battery and insured that I could honk my horns.

7.Now you are ready to mount the wheel to the hub. If you reconneted it disconnect the battery and align the wheel with the hub.

8.Connect your wires to the horn button and get it centered.

9.Put the collar over the button and thread in the bolts. I put each of them in just a bit and then went around tightening them incremenatlly so that my wheel would be perfectly flat and not tweaked.

10.Reconnect the battery and test honk. MOMO recommends that you test the tightness of your bolts after a bit of driving and I strongly support this, steering is something that Porsches do so well it would be a shame for the wheel to fall off!

 

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