The 'E' Type Forum

this should be an easy one for some to answer, but will save me aggro if I can be pointed in the right direction please?

I am removing the old steering wheel off the hub by drilling out the rivets. What is the accepted fashion of refixing the wheel back to the hub when restored and polished? countersunk screws and nuts? or rivetting again? thanks in advance. Andrew

Andrew, I would not attempt to re-rivet the new wheel onto the old boss. The originals were done using a hydraulic press and it would be doubtful if anyone could achieve the same tolerances as your life depends on the wheel keeping in perfect contact with the boss! You need countersunk machine screws with nylock hex nuts (the new wheel/boss kits come with this type of fixing). Try the namrick.co.uk website they have these in stock. Paul

Thanks Paul, good information. Sorry I forgot to respond earlier! thx

I have these photos of my 'spare' wheel... doing exactly as Paul suggested...

Good to see that the hub was not made by the same prat who did one of mine. To make everything look tidy he put the holes for the horn push allen screws in line with the spokes. So it was almost impossible to fix the horn push in place unless you removed the nuts but you could not do that because the horn push covered the screws Moto-Lita is clearly not Moto-Brita.

Have now gone back to the original 16" wheel so no such problems.

I am replacing my wheel with a refurbished early S1 type as described on another post.

I have only just realised that I have to drill out the rivets on the old wheel and replace with countersunk machine screws and nuts.

Any advice on:
- drilling out - doing with wheel in situ or not, size of drill, etc

- length and diameter of new screws & nuts to order. UNF 3/8 x 5/8 looks about the size or M5 x 16mm. I can only find UNF slotted head ones at namrick, not the nice allen key type ones shown in photos.

Thanks

Steve, it will be easier to remove the wheel from the boss out of the car. I centre punched each rivet head and carefully drilled out each head. You need a drill bit just slightly smaller than the overall diameter of the rivet head. Do it is stages and don't put too much pressure on the drill - the rivets are soft. If some of the head in left in the countersunk hole don't worry and with a bit of twisting the remaining metal will give way. What you are left with are the rivet shanks in the boss and these can then be tapped out. There are several suppliers of machine screws on the net and/or on eBay. One word of caution. Don't be tempted to try and remove the rivets from underneath (the tail) disaster awaits and you will be certain to damage the lip of the boss.

Paul

S1 3.8 FHC historic racer
S1 4.2 OTS

I still haven't one mine but will get on with it now. This thread coming alive bounced me into action. Will try to photograph the result.

Its easy dont worry about it - I did the one in the photos i uploaded...

I have just fitted my wheel. I did it in-situ which was no problem. Just needed to fit a dust sheet over the drivers seat and footwell.
Did it as per Northwestern's advice.

I made a mistake on my previous post about the screw size. If you are using imperial size you want 6 off No.10 UNF x 5/8" length countersunk machine screws with No.10 nyloc nuts. (No.10 is equivalent to 3/16")

andrewh wrote:this should be an easy one for some to answer, but will save me aggro if I can be pointed in the right direction please?

I am removing the old steering wheel off the hub by drilling out the rivets. What is the accepted fashion of refixing the wheel back to the hub when restored and polished? countersunk screws and nuts? or rivetting again? thanks in advance. Andrew

I might have missed something here and through the other threads, why are you removing the wheel?
I had my steering wheel refurbished by a guy in Solihull and he managed to do it all by not removing the hub. I would be inclined to do the same.
The wheel is alloy so not hard to polish, die grinder with a polishing pad or a Dremel.
Once the rivets are out and the screws are put in it ruins the original look of the wheel, in my opinion anyway.

Dave

Second that opinion, I did my own, sanded the whole wheel with varying grades of wet and dry paper then polished it, admitidly it didn't have the timber trim on as I re did that also myself using one of the kits sold on eBay, but I just wanted to keep the original smooth rivets

Regards
Jonathan

+1 for leaving the wheel and boss connected. Clue - rivets are regarded as a permanent fixture, or as good as. What Browns Lane hath joined, let no man put asunder...

Pete
(shaking head in disbelief)

I think their are a couple of issues being addressed here. 1. Many people want/need a smaller diameter wheel, particularly if you're running with non standard wheels/tyres. 2. The original is very flexible and often the wood delaminates over the years. The glue used, at the time, is not a modern epoxy resin and goes dry, particularly in countries that have a lot of heat. 3. Originality, that's fine for car shows, but driving the machine is another thing and I would opt for subtle improvements that improve the overall driving pleasure. As for replacing rivets with machine screws - it really is the best and safest option. I replaced my wheel after the original rivets started to 'work' loose and on hard turns you could feel the slack in the wheel being taken up. It was also a squeeze getting in and out with the standard wheel so I changed it for a Mota Lita 14 inch (with wider rim). Results are more comfort, better feel and with the larger wheels/tyres I run it's an overall improvement. I appreciate others will disagree, but I think a steering wheel is a bit like a fountain pen, everyone has their own preference.

Paul

FHC 3.8 historic racer
OTS 4.2 standard car
1

vikla wrote:I have just fitted my wheel. I did it in-situ which was no problem. Just needed to fit a dust sheet over the drivers seat and footwell.
Did it as per Northwestern's advice.

I made a mistake on my previous post about the screw size. If you are using imperial size you want 6 off No.10 UNF x 5/8" length countersunk machine screws with No.10 nyloc nuts. (No.10 is equivalent to 3/16")

Thank you, this was extremely helpfully and made my fixing very simple. I also did it in-situ and got the screws previously. These fitted perfectly. The original rivets where scary loose! Now I have to find the side screws, only had one. My father just received his 1968 XKE OTS 1.5 series this week, and we are completely noobs to this car.... This site is great.. Thanks everybody.