Early Style Mk2 Steering Wheel questions

Hi - I have a couple questions about the early style Mk2 Steering wheel with the small red growler that I’m hoping someone can help with:

  1. how is the plastic cover attached to the horn ring? Mine was completely pulled apart and my parts manual is still in the mail so I’m not sure. It looks like there are possibly a couple of clips that go around the back of the horn ring and snap onto the cover? is that correct? Does anyone have a photo?

  2. Was there originally some sort of foam piece(s) under the cover? I see remnants of what looks like foam and I found a tiny pic of one on the internet that looked like there was a round piece of foam under the growler.

Here’s an internet pic – not my wheel, just for reference:

Thanks!
~Mike

As far as i am aware they are a push fit. i have not ever seen foam under them

Thanks Phil… how do they push on? The horn ring has sort of an indentation on the back that lines up with two rectangular areas on the inside of the cover. Seems like there is some kind of clip?

This is the pic that made me think there is some kind of foam in there:

mk2%20wheel%203

~Mike

See https://krissmotors.com/Mk2/?p=7334

Some of the originals had a foam backing but it is not necessary.

Mine screws in from the back and the screws are recessed into the bakelite steering wheel.

That is certainly the way it is on my 3.8S. There are four screws that remove from the back of the steering wheel spokes. They go through the outer holes in the horn ring and screw into posts in the black plastic cover

This is a NOS horn push cover that I located a number of years ago. This item has a foam backing glued to the reverse side of the growler medallion and the cover is affixed to the chrome horn push ring using the two alloy pins. The pins press through the outermost slots of the ring pictured above and are gripped by a tab that is pressed into the ring slots (these clips are absent in the photos above). This version of the horn push cover is identical to the one that is fitted to our October 1962 built 3.8 LHD MK2. It is removed by carefully pulling the cover toward you when seated in the car.

I have owned one other mounting configuration for the MK2 horn push cover. It entails larger clips that are adhered to the reverse side of the black cover and they press over and around the large spokes of the chrome horn push ring. To accept these rather large clips, the chrome horn push ring has flats cast into the periphery of the spokes to provide a parallel clipping surface for the cover clips. The cover and horn push ring described here must be paired together.

It appears that Jaguar utilized at least three different methods to affix the horn push cover to the chrome horn push ring for the early steering wheel design.

Thanks @KrissMotors and @John_Quilter

Very interesting @Brian_T . Mine must have had the version with the clips you described as there is no provision for the pins. i also have the horn ring with the cast flats.You don’t happen to have a photo of that clipped version do you? How are the clips attached to the cover? What do they look like - Just a ‘C’ shaped clip that wraps around the flat area of the horn ring? I’ve scoured google and couldn’t find any images of the other style.

~Mike

Here is a shot of the different horn ring cover as fitted to the 3.8S and most likely the 420 cars. This is Jaguar part number C 22275. Obviously the attachment method changed between MK II cars and the S Type. With this set up the black cover is ridgedly mounted to the wheel spokes via screws from the back of wheel spokes into the threaded brass pegs on the underside of the cover… Horn operation is only via pushng the spring loaded medallion button or pushing or pulling on the horn ring. Is the horn operation on the MK II via pushing on the black cover?

Thanks @John_Quilter. I think that style of wheel was used on all Mk2 and later saloons but not sure of the changeover date. Later Mk2’s use it as well. As far as I know this style is always attached to the wheel itself the same way – Correct? My 66 Mk X worked this way as well. The early style Mk2 Horn cover is attached to the metal ring and the growler in the center doesn’t do anything but look pretty.

Although shaped differently, even my Series 1 XJ6’s steering wheels work like this later style. Horn ring and center button operation. Cover is stationary - attached directly to the wheel.

Hello Mike,

I looked through my photo archives and I could not locate an image of this cover design. I sold the cover and corresponding chrome horn ring on eBay a number of years ago.

The clip is nearly as wide as the cast in flats on the chrome horn ring. They are shaped like a “C”. At the top and bottom of the “C”, there is a short flat section that rests/clamps to the cast in flats. The C clip is also flat where it mounts to the reverse side of the horn push cover and there is a through hole located there. The C clip is retained to the horn push cover with a resin/glue which is injected through the aforementioned hole and into the horn push cover holes (where the studs are located in my photo sans the studs). Excess resin/glue flowed onto the C clip and that’s how it was held in place. Not the most robust arrangement and most likely why the design was changed. Both C clips on the cover that I sold had been re-glued by a previous owner.

I hope that this description helps.

Brian

Thanks Brian - that does help alot. On my cover there is glue on the flats where the clips apparently were. I thought that something on the cover must have broken because of the glue but I think possibly just the clips came off. This car was pulled apart and I have a bunch of unlabeled random bits and bobs in a box. I’ll take a look in there - maybe I’ll be lucky and find those clips!

I think I’ll also post some pics so that the next guy who comes across this early version of the cover can see it.

My car is a 1960 and apparently it’s the 781st 3.4 LHD off the line… Don’t know where it falls in total production order but it would be interesting to know where they changed over to the pin-style cover.

~Mike