Fitting an aftermarket steering wheel

[Alfadog]

So I finally got my hands on the wheel I had been looking for for a while now (a Nardi!) thanks to our "man in Japan", Miles. Thank you so much to him!!

I bought a hub adaptor kit, Autotechnica, for Nissan. The indicator cancel pins were too far out though. Very odd. Since I bought it from a shop owned by my dad's friend, he modified it for me! Very nice of him. So now the indicators cancel! Awesome.

So I fitted it today, but I am left confused about how to fit the centre horn button and ring. Firstly, I plugged the wire from the Boss to the single spade on the back of the horn button, but it doesn't work. I'm no electrician, so I've probably done something obviously wrong there.

But my main problem is that there doesn't seem to be a way to secure the horn button onto the wheel?! Am I missing some kind of vital part? There was a ring that fits behind or in front of the wheel, the nuts securing it, which the button can kind of wedge itself too - but the result is the button sticks out way too far.

So I'm left wondering, why can't anything just work the way it is supposed to? Getting sick of this. Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions?:dead:

[280~Master]

Alfadog,

Wish I could give you some help here but you have one of those foreign cars.

To try and help you out on this situation I would think the button would sit on the ring. I have seen horn buttons look like they won't fit but they end up sitting in there just right. Now I had a after market wheel that the horn button just pushed in the center of the ring. Yes it would move but only if I tried to move it with my fingers.

As far as your horn sounds like a grounding problem. You have to close that circuit for the horn to blow. Did it work with the last wheel? If you can get a couple of pics maybe we can guide you staright so you can blow your own horn.

[sakijo]

Lachlan,

Here's the deal. The ring has 6 divots on the back side. These correspond to the 6 bolts that hold the wheel to the hub. Snap the ring onto the bolt heads, you may have to fiddle with it to get it to seat properly because it's Italian. Once you get that on, push the horn button into the center of the ring. It should seat and is secured by three spring clips pushing against the inside of the hub adapter. I believe that these spring clips provide the ground.

P.S. I was wondering how the install went and was going to PM you. Now I know.

[The C110]

Hah, coincidence, ive just done this, except with a MOMO prototipo. In any case miles is correct, happy horning...!

[Alfadog]

Hi guys!

Thanks for your comments! Miles, that explanation makes it sound so easy!

As it turns out not all hub adaptor kits are equal. It is such a long story... Basically the horn has nothing to clip onto. The little ring that came with the boss is too small... ok, so I bought an angle grinder and split it into three parts. Then drilled out the holes a little further so that the three parts would sit further away, effectively widening the circle. This worked a treat! After a bit of fiddling and a lot of trial-and-error, I got it down to size. Unfortunately the part that the pins clip over were too deep, so I had to grind that off a bit too. BUT! Eventually I got the centre parts on. And it looks good!!!

But, no horn. The hub adaptor came with one wire from the hub - that I plugged in to the single spade on the back of the horn button. The hub adaptor kit came with a centre horn button with two spades on the back, and a couple of wires. I tried running some wire from the hub to the car body just to see if I could get it working that way, and it didn't either.

Checked battery, and horns and they were all plugged in...

Any idea?

[Mat Big Hat]

I've seen old Nardi hub kits on eBay to fit Datsun. That's what I've got.

Ok, so let's see some pics!

[Alfadog]

Yeah, Nardi seem to be more popular/common in the U.S. But I didn't really want to try eBay as I'd prefer to know it would work, so I went to a shop that deals in performance parts owned by my father's friend.

OK so that plan didn't really pan out.....

Next time I'd just buy a Nardi hub and be done with it. But I have spent good money on this so I am determined to get it working.

Here are some pics :nervous:

[millsan1]

I have a Momo on mine. I just looked today to figure out why I had no horn (I just bought my Z), and the Momo has a single spade, and there is only 1 wire to connect to on the column, but I have no way of connecting the wire, while allowing lock to lock turnign of the wheel.

So, I pulled hte wire out, and will mount a horn button on the column cover.

[Mat Big Hat]

the problem is nardi no longer makes a datsun hub

i believe the ones they sell in japan are generic fit

hey, i don't see a nardi, but i do see a new school billet shift knob ...

[Razor]

Hey Lachlan, can you take a photo of the hub adaptor kit and the steering wheel's front & back?

is there a sprung contact on 240ks when you take the steering wheel off? maybe its not touching the back of the steering wheel?

Cant you just use a horn ring off another aftermarket steering wheel?

[Mastadd240K]

That would be the contact there, Pm Sent...

[Razor]

oh i didnt notice, yeh thats the one, is that contact touching the hub adaptor or boss kit?