Morris Minor Owners Club

I am thinking about swapping the steering wheel on my 1968 Tourer for an earlier wire spoked model. I am looking on eBay etc. but am unsure as to which will fit! They are variously described as banjo fitting, 48 splines,etc.etc.
Can someone unravel the mystery for me please.

The earlier splined banjo type has three sets of evenly spaced spokes - four spokes to each set - and should fit your car with no problem.
The very early wheel has a tapered socket with a locking woodruff key and the four spoke sets have a gap between spokes 2 & 3 as shown in the photo.

As boomlander says, there is some degree if interchangeability. The type in his picture won't fit. Some of the type that will fit (those from cars built 1956 to 1959) didn't have a horn push, just a fixed Morris badge, because the horn push was incorporated in the trafficator stalk switch. For simplicity, you'd maybe want to consider a wheel from the 1959-1963 period, which has a black rim, a horn push and chrome spokes (get one complete with its correct horn push if possible).

Another point is the steering column shroud on your car. It was not fitted to cars with earlier type steering wheels. The early wheel won't align with the shroud and may leave you with a section of 'bare' steering column visible between wheel and shroud.

A word of warning however. The two-spoke wheel you currently have was specified from 1964 onwards [quote] 'as a concession to safety requirements'. Probably doesn't make a lot of difference though!

I have the later black spoked steering wheel on mine for years and I think it looks much better. It fits no problem.
Regards
Declan

If you have not already got the large type centre boss and horn push that go with the metal spoked wheel be prepared to pay quite a bit for one as decent units are quite rare.

Is the horn operation on the metal spoked wheel identical to the later two spoked type or is some rewiring needed?

See my earlier comnents. Some metal spoked wheels didn't have a horn push, as it was on the indicator switch instead

Would the ones with a bull motif wheelcentre be the one I don't want? ie. I need the one with a large M.

Looks to me as though you're correct. The one with the 'Bull' motif is purely decorative as far as I can tell. The one with a gold 'M' on a red background will make a noise when pressed!

Thanks for all replies.