Morris Minor Owners Club

I currently have, on my 68 traveller, a 2 spoke steering wheel which is all cased in black plastic, however my grandma, who had 2 traveller's in her time, said that it wasn't the proper one, and that it should be one with 3 sets of 3 metal spokes. Can somebody set me straight, as I would quite like to get the metal spoked one if I could get hold of one.

Cheers, Tom

Your Grandma had an earlier model car!

the earlier wheel is so much better looking

The 2 spoked horrible thing is standard for a 68. Earlier cars had the nicer 3 spoked (wire spoked) wheels. Of which there were two types, some had a horn push in the middle, and some just had a Morris badge. If you decide to fit one with the badge, you'll need to sort out some other form of horn push. Those Minors operated the horn by pushing the indicator stalk in.

There was also a flat 3 spoke wheel for the Series MM/II but that had a Woodruff key fitting so is no use to you

There is a wheel on eBay now: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MORRIS-MINOR- ... 362wt_1398 but it will require an older stly horn push, not the 'flat' one from the 2 spoke wheels

The type in that link was fitted until 63/64 and was replaced by the 2 spoke bakelite type.

This happened at roughly the same time as the black speedo, key start and toggle switches were fitted.

The reason for change was safety. The plastic one collapses if you land on it, the metal spokes are allegedly more likely to impale you. I can't help feeling that cost of production might have had something to do with it as well.

plus wasnt the later plastic 2 spoke one the same as used in other BMC cars of the period, Morris 1100, Mini etc?

simmitc wrote:The reason for change was safety. The plastic one collapses if you land on it, the metal spokes are allegedly more likely to impale you. I can't help feeling that cost of production might have had something to do with it as well.

In the ABC of British Cars for 1957, when the new style Minor replaced the Series II, a caption under a photo of the interior makes note of the 'new safety steering wheel'. Presumably because it was sprung to some extent and the horn boss recessed.