Original steering whee

Post by **psjorge** » Mon Sep 01, 2008 10:53 pm

Hi everybody!

I restoring an early Series II 4-door sallon (January 1954) and I\'m having a hard time finding an original steering wheel.

Today, browsing the net I stumble across something that intrigued me quite a lot: a picture of a MG TD... and guess what? The steering wheel looks exactly the same (minus the boss, of course)!

Where the steering wheels the same on Minors and TD\'s?

Can someone please shed some light on this... it\'s quite easy to get a steering wheel if one says it\'s for an MG TD...

Thanks,
Pedro

Post by **moggiemadman** » Tue Sep 02, 2008 11:59 am

I might be wrong,but im sure the mg td steering wheel was a banjo type wheel,but its not the same style as a morris minor steering wheel,the chrome strips in the middle are spaced diffently.

Cheers
John

Post by **mickessex** » Tue Sep 02, 2008 4:34 pm

They do come up on ebay occasionally, so worth keeping an eye out.

Probably worth posting in the wanted section too.

Mick

Post by **MColes** » Tue Sep 02, 2008 5:01 pm

You should ask "badobsession". He is currently clearing out his Father-in-laws garage and among the list of spares are steering wheels. You would have to ask what series they were from thou as there are no specific details about them.

Worth asking him if he'll post.

The list of spares is HERE

Post by **Kevin** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 8:36 pm

Today, browsing the net I stumble across something that intrigued me quite a lot: a picture of a MG TD... and guess what? The steering wheel looks exactly the same (minus the boss, of course)!

Where the steering wheels the same on Minors and TD\'s?

I am sure the Minor wheel has a built in boss if the TD one is seperate then no it won't fit.
Is this the sort
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MORRIS-MINOR-STEE ... 286.c0.m14

Post by **PSL184** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 8:54 pm

No, thats a series 4 wheel.....

Post by **Kevin** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 9:50 pm

No, thats a series 4 wheel.....

What's a series 4 ?

Post by **PSL184** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 9:56 pm

Kevin wrote:
No, thats a series 4 wheel.....
What's a series 4 ?

Sorry, my bad.... early Series 5 (V)

Series MM - September 1948 > February 1953

Chassis numbers: 501 > 179839

Series II - August 1952 > September 1956

Chassis numbers: 160001 > 448714

Early 1000 (Series III) - October 1956 > September 1962

Chassis numbers: 448801 > 990289

Late 1000 (Series V) - September 1962 > April 1971

Chassis numbers: 990290 > 1294082

NOTE: Series IV was allocated to the Mini-Minor

Post by **Kevin** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 10:04 pm

Well thats not a later wheel as its not a 2 spoke one, its the previous banjo type of steering wheel but looking at the centre it has a horn push in it so its the later of the 2 banjo types.
So the correct type for the series 11 is going to be one of the flat types rather than the later dished ones.

Post by **PSL184** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 10:10 pm

I believe the Series II had a bakerlite (?) wheel with brown centre boss and gold rim to the boss but I'm not fully au fait with cars this early.....

Post by **IaininTenbury** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 10:13 pm

As far as I know the MG and Minor wheels are the same. At least, I've seen ones on autojumble stalls tagged as MG which look exactly like Minors wheels. Sadly at MG type prices too... I assume the horn push may be different, and the colour of the marbled rim seems to vary a lot. The bosses were brown on early MMs then went gold, at some stage which I can't remember offhand, no doubt someone will clarify...

Post by **PSL184** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 10:30 pm

Where is Judge when you need him

Post by **ASL642** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 10:50 pm

The SII does have the bakerlite horn push (brown) with the steering column in gold and (in our case) a green bakerlite wheel

Post by **IaininTenbury** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 11:10 pm

Thinking about it the boss colour change may have been in 1951. my '49 saloon has a brown boss, another MM, an early'51 that I had, had a gold boss and my '53 convertible certainly has a gold boss. I've got a fairly dead 1950 saloon at work too, but can't remember what the colour is on that one. Least of the problems with that car!

Post by **IaininTenbury** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 11:11 pm

Or I could just look it up in certain book, but the books at work...

Post by **ASL642** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 6:17 pm

Heavens Iain, have you taken to ferrying them around on a lowloader to rallies now?

Post by **IaininTenbury** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 10:28 pm

The car transporter pic was when I moved from Sheffield to Worcestershire. Worked out it was cheaper to do it like that than do 8 journeys with Land Rover and trailer. What was hard was to find 8 cars that could be driven on to the lorry under there own power - no winches on a car transporter. Anything road legal had already been driven down and all the others (at that time - have thinned things out a bit now) were exceedingly dead. The MM just struggled on at the back with seized brakes and was what following motorists came up behind on the M1 dangling off the back! Got a lot of funny looks on that trip...

Post by **ASL642** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 10:16 am

Well at least you got them all down. Hows poor Gaffa - still moping at the back of the garage?

Post by **stevey** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 1:12 pm

all mm steering wheels had brown horn pushes and bosses. only the steering column and bit below the boss changes from brown to gold

Post by **psjorge** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 10:34 pm

Thanks for all your comments and info!

Here's another doubt regarding these early type steering wheels: as far as I know there were beige and grey rims. Can someone please tell me the rule for using one or the other? Was it related to the color scheme (body/interior)? By the way my car is (or will be...) black with maroon interior.

Hope to hear from you!
Pedro