Steering Wheel Swap

[rv6aaviator]

Replaced the steering wheel on the 64 today. I removed a 13" Grant steering wheel and replaced it with a 64 NOS simulated wood wheel. I ordered the adapter kit from Clark's and the install process went smooth as glass.

[66vairguy]

Very nice. BTW - the 1964 - 66 Corvair steering wheel spline is UNIQUE to the Corvair vs. all the other GM cars. I've never been able to determine why GM did that.

Many years ago Seth Emerson of Performance Corvairs and Silicone Wire Systems invested in tooling to make a hub that fit and accepted different steering wheels. Thanks to Seth's efforts we can now install the wood style steering wheels on Corvairs.

[rv6aaviator]

The adapter kit from Clark's is top notch. Excellent quality. Thanks Seth....

[sethracer]

I worked for many years at FMC. At that facility, we built M113 Personnel carriers and Bradley Fighting Vehicles for the Army. There was actually a production line, but a lot slower that the true Automotive industry. I did learn a lot about production, design and assembly techniques. When I realized the design of the 1964-66 Corvair, 64-65, close to the same, 66 slightly different, I thought about why they would design the steering column the way they did, and why they changed it from the 60-63 design. Of course, in 1967, they completely changed it to install the GM collapsible column which was used on all GM cars. I think, for the 64, they looked at the man hours for assembly and installation of the 60-63 column into the car. That design used a "captive" column, retained at both ends, assembled out of the car on a separate production line, then mated into the car from the inside, with someone else on the bottom to mate and bolt-together the column with the steering box via a 2-bolt coupler. Depending on whether the steering wheel was already installed on the column, (or not) this could already extend the time needed for installation - or the wheel would have to be removed and re-installed to match the rotational location of he box, so the wheel could point straight ahead. The 64 re-design not only changed the design to a one piece shaft from inside the box, all the way to the steering wheel spline, but it changed the material size of the upper shaft from 3/4" bar stock to 5/8" bar stock. That change in material was the reason for the smaller spline in the 64 - and later, the 65 models. They couldn't use the larger spline on a smaller shaft. So why did they change to the smaller size bar? Because the steering box already use the 5/8" shaft size for its input, and the box casting and other, associated parts, were already designed to mate with the smaller shaft. They just added a few sleeves to make the 5/8" shaft a nice fit into the column. The new input shaft would be almost like the old one, except ~4 feet longer. It also eliminated the coupler and other retaining parts at the lower edge of the column, saving more money. Also, for assembly, the one-piece shaft design allowed the assembly workers to slide the steering box up into place and later, slide the column down and bolt it down in place - now a one man job. To do this, required some adjustability in the positioning of the column, and the 64-65 style allows that. So, why did they change the design in 1966? and Why did they retain the smaller spline for the wheel? I like to think that someone looked at the "Spear-the-driver" design of the 64 and said "Holy c*ap!", and then it it took them into the mid-year of the 65 production to go back, in most ways, to the earlier design. The 66 design is almost like the early, but with a large "aligning" coupler added, for safety, mid-way down the shaft. It wasn't as pure as the later 67-69 columns, but it did add a measure of safety - much better than the 64-early 65 design. The 66 design went back to the 3/4" material for the shaft. At the top, that 65 mid-year design (it was about April/May on) used the same small spline because they had to use the same steering wheels, etc. as the earlier 65 models. It would have cost a bunch to change all of them over, and cause a parts department nightmare. Then, for 66, they just continued the late-65 design, leaving almost all parts interchangeable. I want to stress that I have no proof of the above scenario, it is only a theory. But it is based on a lot of observation and years of production control experience. If you have a better theory, I would be glad to hear it!

[cad-kid]

Great post! The replacement wheel looks great and is probably easier to steer with.

[tommy44432]

I wanted a different steering wheel on my '67 Chevy Nova and after looking into it I found out the wheel I selected came with an adapter kit that would also fit my '63 Monza convertible. Fastest steering wheel swap I ever made. Just removed the Grant wheel that was on the Nova and bolted the new one in place. Time? 5 minutes. Removed the Corvair's steering wheel, slid the adapter onto the spline of the steering column, hooked up the horn, and bolted the old Nova wheel on.

[sethracer]

GM used the same spline on all their cars - except the 64-66 Corvair - from the early 50's through the early 2000's. The two things that make things different are the horn actuation pass through and the turn signal canceling. If you start swapping wheels, make sure you account for those two variables. From 1967-on GM used a fairly common horn pass-through. I am pretty sure that is because of the corporate-wide collapsible columns. Later on, they had to account for passing steering wheel control information, like radio or cruise control. They developed various ways of doing that. I just completed installation of a 2008 Corvette steering wheel (air-bag removed) onto a Flaming River tilt column in my 65 Corvair. The C6 Corvette - and maybe some of the C5s, as well as the other newer GM cars, used a new metric-sized spline in the wheel, just slightly smaller than the old spline. The Flaming River uses the 67-later (through 2000?) spline, just like the old-time GM columns, and the same type of horn pass-through. I found a company in Southern California who had the broach to re-spline the wheel for me. I made a small alteration of the wheel to use the GM horn pass-through and turn signal cancelling. I like the feel of the installation. I haven't yet driven it. Other work awaits.