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What approach / solution have people taken to the Sportster steering wheel.
My original (E36) steering wheel has slip rings on the back for the air bag and a centre push horn, with a set of associated pickups on the column. The IVA man says I can't have an airbag in a non mass produced car (thankfully) but that I have to have a collapsible steering wheel boss to disperse any impact loads. So that means that I can't use my original steering wheel but I haven't seen a collapsible boss with slip rings so that I can use the pick ups on the column for a centre push horn.
So have you any advice on a steering wheel / horn solution. I've looked at the IVA manual and that doesn't give me any clues other than the fact that I need to fit a horn.
I not sure if the rules have changed for the IVA, but for the SVA you only had to have a collapsible boss if the steering column went straight (no bends) from the rack to the steering wheel. The Sportster column has a bend of just over 15 deg (as I remember) This allows the column to deform in the event of a head on collision (heaven forbid). All I needed in addition to this was a padded (soft) steering wheel centre.
Now I have a Motalita wheel and a collapsible boss. The boss had provision for the slip rings to be transfered from the original E30 steering wheel. Can't remember the make - sorry.
You don't have to have the horn in the centre of the wheel. I think the criteria is that you must be able to operate it without removing your hands from the wheel - so a stalk operated horn is also acceptable.
The 15 degree angle is not very obvious so I had a side photo of the car without body work which I could show to the SVA examiner but in practise he was happy just to see the collapsible boss. (Mines got a rubber bellow so you can pull it back.)
Most collapsible bosses have a single slip ring for the horn button. (Try Momo or OMP)
I stuck a soft foam pad over my center boss which may not be acceptable now as it may be deemed as 'not permanent'. I stuck it on with Evo-stick, so it was quite permenant. Steering wheel cover by marlinpeter, on Flickr
I used the original BMW wheel for the IVA, but just took out the airbag and replaced it with foam, which the IVA man was happy with.
Reverted to the same solution as the other guys for the re-test with also no issues.
Tim
Glad to see Tim's last response as I had always planned on using the donor wheel until post IVA when something more in keeping with the rest of the car will go on. My donor was not posh enough in 1993 to have airbags so the space between the centre horn push piece and the boss is just, well, space.
The point about the angle in the steering column was made to me when I initially picked up my kit from Marlin and was confused about which bits of the BMW UJ I needed to keep. I thought I'd need the collapsable steering knuckle but Kevin said because the entire system has twin UJs and went through a few angles that in a crash it would buckle out of the way rather than hit you in the chest/head.
Glad to see Tim's last response as I had always planned on using the donor wheel until post IVA when something more in keeping with the rest of the car will go on. My donor was not posh enough in 1993 to have airbags so the space between the centre horn push piece and the boss is just, well, space.
I was pleasanly suprised to see Tim's post as well.
I can see that some high density foam in place of the airbag would provide some protection against an impact with the column but I always asssumed (dangerous thing to do, I know) that the collapsible boss was to provide protection against an impact with the rim.
If I can get a similarly thinking IVA man to Tim then I'll go the same way - the original BMW steering wheel for IVA and then a decent one on a collapsible boss later.
I remeber reading somewhere on this forum that a builder had fitted a steering wheel with chrome / stainless spokes and put some edging strips on the spokes to comply with the radius requirements. However, the IVA man had failed it because the edging wasn't considered permanent enough. I wondered later why the edging strip was considered to be any less permanent than that on the bonnet tops, or cycle wings, or any where else for that matter. If that arguement held then you could fit a decent steering wheel, suitably protected with edging strip from the word go............
