Hi Guys,
I'm wanting to install a new steering wheel in my 1988 Vision, however I find that the steering system used is a outdated "Ride Glide" from Mercury, {distinguishable by the grey steering cable}.
Anyway, the problem is the old steering wheel mounts with a 7 bolt pattern, but the replacement wheel I have is a 6 bolt mounting pattern with a slightly smaller center hole than the original.
I purchased the replacement wheel with the understanding that there are plenty of adapters available for this application ---- well, now I have the wheel {and it is a beauty} but I can't find any adapter anywhere that I can be sure will fit -- I find plenty of 9 bolt to 6 bolt pattern adapters and vise versa but nothing for 7 to 6.
I know I can't be the first to run into this, so I'm counting on my forum experts/friends to help me out here
Anybody got any ideas?
Thought I would share the problems I encountered {and the solution} regarding this steering wheel stuff.
Well, come to find out not only did Checkmate use the now not so popular Ride-Guide steering system but they used two different iterations of that system.
The two versions of Ride Guide were ---- one with a round tapered hub shaft and one with a square tapered hub shaft.
To make matters a little worse, the hub itself uses a seven mounting bolt pattern for the wheel, whereas most are 6 or 9 patterns.
As I should have expected, my Vision has the hub and shaft {square tapered} that nobody makes wheels for {go ahead and try to find a nice custom wheel with a 7 bolt pattern
}
So, you would think that I would just simply find a hub that'll go on the square tapered Ride Guide shaft AND that would accept my new wheel {my new wheel has a 6 bolt mounting pattern}.
Ahh, but there is another dynamic involved, -- there are two different 6 bolt mounting patterns now in the industry {basically the Dino pattern and the Momo pattern} --- well my new custom wheel is a Grant, so what the hell pattern do I have, the Dino or the Momo?????
You also might think I could just find a somekind of adapter that would simply go on my exisiting hub that would change it from a 7 boly pattern to one of the 6 bold patterns.
Well I searched everywhere --- all I got from places like Rex Marine / EMI / Overtons / CP performance / Teague / etc... --- there is no hubs or adapters anywhere that will fit your exact need.
So, I went to my local {and trusted} custom machine shop, they looked at my situation and said yup, we can spin and machine a hub that'll fit your need, --it'll be $200 and 3 to four weeks unpainted.
Ahhhhhhhh, enter a little forum searching and contimplation and I come up with --- let me ask Randy at WILDMAN custom rigging if he can give me any ideas.
Randy was awesome to work with, he patiently went through a couple of measures and other mechanical dynamics with me and low and behold he comes to me and says he's got a one of a kind specially made shaft hub that just might work.
Randy your the best -- thankyou again if your listening.
Here are a couple of pics of what the new wheel and hub looks like