Can someone tell me how to remove the "steering gear control cover", that donut shaped bakelite piece that surrounds the horn button and covers the light and throttle levers on the steering wheel of my '29 coupe. I want to start working on fabricating new levers as my pot-metal ones are broken (as most are I understand). It seems like it should unscrew but I can't budge it and I don't want to break it. I thought someone out there might be able to give me some advice. Thanks. Kim Mc
Not sure about your 29, but I can tell you about my 30U.
I broke my first pot metal level screwing around at the steering wheel end.
The whole thing was held in place by the light switch on the bottom of the column. Take the nut loose on the bottom (horn wire runs out through it) and that will release the inner shaft which holds the horn button. On the 30U you release the second bolt clamp at the bottom of the column (above the light switch) and that releases the second or outer shaft which controls the hand throttle. You can take these both these shafts out as a pair if you want.
I had some problems as the shafts are too long to take out without taking the steering column loose from the dash so that it could be bent down to provide enough length to remove the shafts.
Just some thoughts, hope it helps.
P.S.one of my pot metal levers I was able to repair with JB Weld (a 2 part epoxy) and it worked fine. I tried it again with another one and couldn't get it to hold.
Gary
Wonderful! Nothing is ever easy, is it. Thanks for your reply. Guess I will leave this item for that time when I don't need the steering wheel and column for a while. But I have plenty of other projects to work on with my car. Thanks for the help. Kim
The control levers were broken off on my 1929 Ply Coupe when I bought it. I would like to reproduce them but don't have a sample to go by. A close up photo and the length and height of them would be appreciated. Thanks - Rich
Hopefully I am posting some good photos of the control levers from my 30U. and I threw in a photo of the "welded frame" as well.
Hope this helps,
Eric
Thanks for the photos on the steering wheel levers. That helps a lot. At some point in time I will attempt to make a set of aluminum. Be real careful with the set you have. That pot metal is a pain. They should have known those parts had to last at least 80 years!!! A little oil down below might go a long way to make them last. As far as the welded frame ???? I don't see any weld. It does look just like my 1929 frame though. - Happy Motoring!!!! - Rich
It order to remove these control rods, was the steering box needed to be loosed? I loosened the lower clamp on the dash mounted steering column bracket and that did not give me enough room. fI have a 4 door sedan so the roof gets in the way. It looks that to remove the steering box, the pitman arm would need to be removed. Is this a splined shaft and just a good puller is needed? My true goal was to remove the steering wheel as this needs to be repaired. It looks like that is a spined shaft and puller system would be needed to pull that once the control rods and horn button is all off.
rusty