philthehill wrote: ↑Fri May 30, 2025 9:47 am
The front hub and wheel nut figures are the same.
I am not aware of any reason that BMC would want to reduce the torque setting of the steering wheel nut.
The only reason I can think of is that the higher torque pressed the female taper of the steering wheel harder onto the male taper of the steering column making it difficult to separate the two.
That makes sense, garages complaining that it was hard work, even with the puller.
To put this to bed, I have just confirmed that the steering wheel nut on a Series V needs a 3/4" Whitworth spanner. This is 33.02 mm so 1*5/16" AF (33.33mm) also fits
Berni has already confirmed that the Series II steering wheel spanner is 7/8" Whitworth
The box spanner I posted a picture of earlier in the thread will do both sizes. Phil mentioned that really the nut should be correctly torqued which is not possible with a box spanner but it is lot better than a hammer and chisel which was often used!!!!
Stephen
1969 1098cc Convertible “Xavier” which I have owned since 1989.
Stephen you can torque using a box spanner. You put an appropriate size socket on the outside of the end you are not using and use it with your torque wrench to get the appropriate setting
But if you have sockets that big you probably have one for the nut
Bill_qaz wrote: ↑Tue Jun 03, 2025 8:20 pm
Stephen you can torque using a box spanner. You put an appropriate size socket on the outside of the end you are not using and use it with your torque wrench to get the appropriate setting
But if you have sockets that big you probably have one for the nut
Well exactly. The end I'm not using is 7/8" Whitworth and I don't have an enormous socket for that!!! Incidentally, if you do use a socket for the steering wheel nut it makes the process more time consuming than using a box spanner. You have to remove the e-clip, spring and plastic tube for the horn contact and it is fiddly and easy to loose the clip. I do have a socket but find it far quicker to use a box spanner. Also you may find there is no room inside the steering wheel boss for a socket, it depends on the wall thickness of the socket.
Stephen
Last edited by svenedin on Tue Jun 03, 2025 11:09 pm, edited 2 times in total.
1969 1098cc Convertible “Xavier” which I have owned since 1989.
Don't remember removing anything other than the horn push(one screw ) to access the nut, removed it and steering wheel and realigned it as it annoyed me being a spline out of central. The socket fitted without any modification, I didn’t use a torque wrench but after 50+ years in the industry I have a well tuned elbow
Bill_qaz wrote: ↑Tue Jun 03, 2025 10:38 pm
Don't remember removing anything other than the horn push(one screw ) to access the nut, removed it and steering wheel and realigned it as it annoyed me being a spline out of central. The socket fitted without any modification, I didn’t use a torque wrench but after 50+ years in the industry I have a well tuned elbow
The Series V the horn push has to be carefully levered out, it's secured by clips not a screw. Then there's the central horn push contact which is held in the top of a plastic tube by an e-clip on the bullet connector. There's a spring inside the tube. A socket will foul this or at least mine does.
Stephen
IMG_8545.jpeg (1.43 MiB) Viewed 586 times
1969 1098cc Convertible “Xavier” which I have owned since 1989.
Bill_qaz wrote: ↑Tue Jun 03, 2025 10:38 pm
Don't remember removing anything other than the horn push(one screw ) to access the nut, removed it and steering wheel and realigned it as it annoyed me being a spline out of central. The socket fitted without any modification, I didn’t use a torque wrench but after 50+ years in the industry I have a well tuned elbow
The Series V the horn push has to be carefully levered out, it's secured by clips not a screw. Then there's the central horn push contact which is held in the top of a plastic tube by an e-clip on the bullet connector. There's a spring inside the tube. A socket will foul this or at least mine does.
Stephen
IMG_8545.jpeg
Stephen, mines 62 cross over mk5 with banjo wheel so not like your picture.I maybe having brain fade but I remembered a screw holding horn push and keeps M in correct orientation to spoke.
To get back to the original point of steering wheel position, it will not be possible to do this on MM and SII cars by removing the wheel as it will only go on one way due to the key which is slotted into the steering column - there are no splines at the top on these cars! So, as far as I can see, it would only be possible to alter the position of the steering wheel by removing the column itself and repositioning it on the splines of the steering pinion.
But I don't see why the manual insists that the mark on the pinion spline should line up with the gap in the clamp at the bottom of the steering column.
It says the mark is at bottom dead centre when the wheels are straight ahead. So I would assume it's so you align your steering wheel because as you say the top is keyed not splined, so fixed position.
Bill_qaz wrote: ↑Thu Jun 26, 2025 12:30 pm
It says the mark is at bottom dead centre when the wheels are straight ahead. So I would assume it's so you align your steering wheel because as you say the top is keyed not splined, so fixed position.
Yes, which implies that if you want your steering wheel the opposite way round to how it is on these older cars, you would have to line up the clamp opposite to the bottom dead centre mark on the pinion.....i.e. the clamp gap would then be uppermost on the column.
Thinking about it further, for a three-spoke wheel, there would be three positions in which the column could be placed to get the steering wheel in the way you want......
Yes, in terms of appearance. But I was thinking that as there are three sets of spokes on the wheel, if you wanted a spoke at 12 o' clock there are three positions of the column on the splines that would achieve this, and the same if you wanted a spoke at 6 o'clock.
