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Grip Loose from Steering Wheel Frame

OldCarNewTricks

OldCarNewTricks

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 23, 2016
Location
Oregon
Hello,

The steering wheel that I have in my 242 is one of the smaller ones from a later 240, and I like it alright, but the foam grip material is loose from the internal frame of the wheel. I was wondering if anyone has repaired this before? I was thinking an injection needle with something like gorilla glue might work?

https://imgur.com/a/7JM90ia

Another thought is just swapping over to an aftermarket wheel with more legroom if repair isn't really possible.
 
In my 93 that happened to the original wheel. I couldn't stand it so I removed the wheel. Changed the horn contact turn signal bracket to the older design (non srs) and put on one of my GT wheels. Never had that happen on the older steering wheels. It was super annoying on my 93.
 
Last edited:
dl242gt said:
In my 93 that happened to the original wheel. I couldn't stand it so I removed the wheel. Changed the horn contact turn signal bracket to the older design (non abs) and put on one of my GT wheels. Never had that happen on the older steering wheels. It was super annoying on my 93.
Click to expand...

Doesn't seem like the safest thing, either.

I'd like to stick to a smaller design wheel for max room between seat and wheel. I have my eyes on a Momo wheel from the 90's with a 240 hub for $165, which seems like a good deal.
 
I actually just did this repair with clear gorilla glue. First I wrapped the entire wheel on painters tape to protect it from glue getting all over it. These were my results: 1.- inject with needle - I couldn't get it flow. 2. - made marks evenly spaced across the affected areas (at the valleys of the finger divets if your wheel has them) drilled a small hole to the steel core of the wheel, slightly smaller than the size of the gorilla glue nozzle, inserted the nozzle and squeezed for the life of me. The idea was to get enough in there that I could move the foam back and forth around the steel enough to spread it out but no flow, or not enough flow. 3. The highest risk but it ended up being a very nice repair. I wish I had done this before drilling the holes in the foam. Cut along the backside of the wheel with a very sharp razor down to the metal core. Trace it out on the tape before you cut so it's nice and straight and where the seam is not visible. Open up the cut, apply the glue, massage it around for full coverage, clean up excess glue with a damp rag. Now carefully line everything back up and re-wrap with tape to hold the seam nice and tight. Wait at least a day or 2 before removing the tape. I would recommend only doing half the wheel at a time. When I removed the tape the seam was barely noticeable to the eye and the hand. Lastly, I installed a nice black leather wrap on the wheel. Good luck!
 
I did steps 1/2, spit glue all over my hands and the wheel and installed an Rsport wheel instead
 
Or simply buy a nice soft 14.5" 86-88 / GT GLT wheel that doesn't crap out.

s-l1600.jpg
 
The 242GT wheel, the turbo GLT wheel and the 85-88 DL wheel are all the same small 14.5" steering wheel. The center horn pad interchanges on all of these three wheels. Much nicer and don't crap out as Ken says. I guess if you really want to keep the airbag the cut and glue method seems good. But I dislike the large steering wheel in general.
 
I was able to get one of the ones shown by Redwood Chair in the photo above. Thank you for reaching out to me, by the way! And thank you Kjets for the wheel!

I gave it a good scrub, very gently sanded all the brass horn contacts and then coated those all with electrical contact grease (NO-OX-ID). The wheel is on the car, and I'm happy to do away with the loose one. :)
 
Look into wheelskins

They’re real nice leather wheel covers you sew on, I’ve got one in the 244, ~8 years old holding up pretty good and doesn’t get hot in the sun surprisingly
 
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