Replacing steering wheel

how to fit a new steering wheel to old boss on series 1 xke.

These are the steps I can recall,

  1. Remove the horn button by removing the 3 grub screws that hold it in place
  2. remove the horn ring and steering wheel/hub by removing the large nut and washers, and watch out for the split cone from the shaft underneath the horn boss. It needs to be there on reinstallation.
  3. Remove the flat spoke portion of the wheel from the hub by drilling out the rivets that hold the wheel to the hub
  4. Install new wheel with new rivets or equivalent
  5. reinstall reverse the above.
    good luck

Hi John,

Thanks for your quick reply. I guess I should have been more specific

  • I actually have 2 questions; 1 -Are the rivets readily available? 2 -
    Is there a special rivet gun used to install the new rivets or is there
    a way of securing them without a gun?

john carey wrote:

XKS sells the rivets.

I think i got a set with my new wheel but didnt use them. Send ne your address for a freebie.
Mike

Thank you for the info Eric.

Terry

Eric wrote:

Hi Michael. That is very nice of you. Hopefully I can repay the favor
some day. Do you need a special tool to install the rivets?

Terry Lawell
7434 Fireoak Drive
Austin, Texas
78759

67 OTS wrote:

I used flat head screw with lock nuts. You can’t really see them once the horn button is place. Found the rivits if you want them.

They are not blind rivets, not like pop rivets you install with a pop rivet gun. These were most likely inserted by hand and compressed into their final configuration with a press of some kind exerting pressure to the backside with the front side (horn button side) against a striker plate.

IIRC, my replacement steering wheel came with those screws and nuts. But that was 15 years ago.

Thanks for the suggestion - I think the flat head screws would work fine.

67 OTS wrote:

I did not think they looked like normal rivets. Someone told me they
just used flat heat screws and that worked fine - I might try that
route. Thanks John for the info though.

Cheers, Terry

John Walker 1969 FHC wrote:

Terry, if you use the rivets, you need to peen the rivets on a buck of steel. Can be done by hand but the factory most likely used a machine for this. I used flat head screws and small lock nuts on mine.

Thanks John - I think I will go the nut and screw route as well.

Cheers, Terry

john carey wrote: