Basic Steering Wheel Conversion

[Andrew162]

Subject car: ST162 SX Celica, 1986.

This really is a very simple job, all you need are the right tools and a bit of patience assembling the new wheel.


The humble ST series Celica steering wheel. Had 21 years of faithful service and now time for a retirement in favour of a bit more style.


Removing the horn button is the first step. There's two black press-fit clips that attach to the upper sections on the reverse side of the horn, but the bottom requires a phillips head screwdriver in behind the bottom spoke of the wheel.


After that's out of the way, it's time to get serious. A 19mm socket, a half-inch-drive set of 4" extension, 8" breaker bar .... that poor old nut had no chance. Fortunately mine wasn't on 'too' tight, and just required one swift crack to have it loose. Now you have the nut off, give the wheel a few bashes in each direction (away from the shaft, ie. towards you) and the wheel itself will crack off the spline. Just don't hit yourself in the head with the old wheel...


Bye bye wheel...


Ok now you get the new bosskit and turn to the back of it to see that copper-looking ring. This is the horn contact point. It's also the source of much frustration if it's not properly greased, so all you should need is a smear around the surface. If it's too dry then every time the wheel turns it will make an annoying grinding sound.


Fit the bosskit into place on the steering column spline. For mine the application guide says #401 (which also fits 1983 - 1987 model Toyota's, including Corolla, Celica and Camry).


Now comes the part which involves a bit of compromise. No bosskit I've ever seen will actually line up the steering wheel dead-straight and have the "TOP" imprint of the bosskit actually going directly north either, so what you need to do here is to get the "TOP" as close as possible to the uppermost part of the steering, and also have the boltholes for the wheel as straight and level as possible. The reason why there's a "TOP" imprinted on the bosskit is quite simple... it aligns the indicator shut-off position when the wheel returns back to the centre, so that if you've had your indicator on going round a corner, on the return the bosskit will flick off the indicator via a mechanism at the back of it which lines up with the steering column and indicator stalk.


Once you're satisfied the bosskit is in the best position, put the 19mm nut back into place but don't overtighten. At this point you can hook up the horn button ring and test it out.


Note that in order to test if the horn works, it needs to have a contact with the metal face of the bosskit, effectively grounding the connection and making the contact active for the horn to sound. Also one thing you might want to think about right now is how the horn button logo will line up with the wheel. On this wheel, it can only be done while the horn ring is off and the horn button can be repositioned to suit.


To get the horn ring to line up properly, I found that if you shift the rubber dust cover of the bosskit forward a few mm, then you can have the holes of the horn ring and the bosskit lined up just nice. Next step, to fit the wheel....


Continued...

[Andrew162]

Grab a few bolts and fit them up onto the face of the steeing wheel. I chose to keep the aluminium ring in the centre although I could have removed it. I think this gives it the 'cruiser' type of look. If I want to go for a 'racer' look, I guess I could take off the aluminium ring in the centre, do away with the stainless domed-hex bolts and go for the stock black countersunk bolts into the wheel face instead.


Fit up all the bolts to the wheel and tighten. Now feel the leatherrrr....




The whole wheel looks great and the tidy finish really looks teh tits.



Project Notes:
Time taken to complete this project: ~15 minutes
Difficulty of this project: Easy
Recommended Tools: phillips head screwdriver, 19mm socket, breaker bar + extension, and the alan keys (hex-keys) which come with the steering wheel and bosskit.
Cost of this project: ~$70 for bosskit, $140 for wheel.

[TA-022]

people need guides for this???

jks aside ... nice write up .... blinker cancellation positioning is sometimes the trickiest part of all this.

[Andrew162]

well I was a bit iffy about putting it up to start with, but our ST162-owning Board-member (Rob) suggested that it might not be a bad idea if it were put into here.

[Hiro]

Just thought I should add that you shouldn't fully remove the centre nut until AFTER you've cracked the steering wheel off the spline. This way, there is no chance that the steering wheel can come flying off the column and into your noggin.

[Andrew162]

fair call...

[Vios-GT_07]

how would u get the steering as straight as possible??

the little notches are very annoying.. and i've never been dead set, always a tooth out or something... (after pulling it off and on numerous times)

[Andrew162]

no idea on that one, but like I already said above, I've never seen a bosskit that lets you have your wheel dead-centered like stock, although the splines between the orig steering wheel and the new bosskit are identical. . yeah I agree, it is annoying, but it was like that on my old Scorpion, the same as it was on the RAV4, and now the Celica.

[LeeRoy]

It's called go and get a wheel alignment. Also that boss kit appears to be lacking the indacator cancelation holes - does it have them or am i blind.

If it doesnt then you need to put the wheel on with the boss kit, butn it so the pins draw a circle where they touch, and then drill 2 holes the size of the pins along the line the pins travel.

- LeeRoy

[Andrew162]

The holes are there, albeit impeded somewhat by the flash. I'm happy to say that you're not blind. One at the bottom-left of shot, and three at the top-right. Although after a bit of testing I had to extend these holes somewhat, to make the blinker cancelation more thorough through both left and right travel. Was a bit tricky but it works.

wheel alignment is not necessary.

[RobST162]

well I was a bit iffy about putting it up to start with, but our ST162-owning Board-member (Rob) suggested that it might not be a bad idea if it were put into here.

Yes, yes I did. Sorry if I annoyed anyone, but it's 'technical writeups' in dedicated threads that are the biggest arguement for not having dedicated threads. As we have already seen in this tread, there's been some good helpful ideas from people who wouldn't read the 162 thread necessarily, which is the point really. So top stuff all around I say!

And since we ALL love the 162 thread and never want it to go away... hehe

Anyway top writeup Andrew and super helpful for anyone out there who doesn't have experience with this and wants to be sure.

[Jorrs]

nice write up Andrew, it should of been done long ago, i think there were a few threads asking how to do this in the past.

[LeeRoy]

Actually your right i see them. Theyre on the silver bit just inside from the gold/bronze ring. The boss kit i had i had to drill 2 holes into the gold/bronze bit for the indicators to switch off.

- LeeRoy

[Andrew162]

it's all good, it's here now for anyone who needs it, and not just restricted to the domain of the ST162 driver either.

thanks Jorrs and Rob, just trying to help out where I can.

[Vios-GT_07]

when i was in victoria i did try to go and get a wheel alignment

they got the wheels straight, but they refused to touch the aftermarket steering.. they reckon it was illegal to take it off and make it dead center.. for some reason... i even said "i don't see why, can u just do it, or let me go up there and do it and i won't say anything" and they refused... i knew them quite well too..