Hey guys - I just picked up a nice dished '56 Ford wheel, and I'd like to use this in my '48 Ford Tudor deluxe. I obviously know I'll need to shorten the outer tube and do something about the inner shaft, since the '56 wheel is splined and tapered and the earlier Ford column is keyed. I'd like to keep the stock steering box, and not butcher up my wheel. I'm asking because I've never done this kind of swap before...I'm new with the early Ford stuff. What's a good way to make this happen? I've been trying to find articles, but I'd love any help from someone who's done this directly. For more context, my deluxe is still a 3 on the tree. It would be cool to keep it that way, though I know it'll bring the shifting much closer to the dash, not to mention dealing with the linkage and geometry, and probably be far easier to just move it to the floor. I appreciate any help in this swap. Thanks for reading. I'm not looking for "Keep it original and leave the '48 wheel in it," that's not why I am here.
I'm going to stick around for this as I have a 48 steering column as well and want to adapt a later wheel to it, cheers
Here's some info about shortening the column/column shift mechanism/ https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/shortening-a-three-on-the-tree-column.1344560/ As far as shortening the steering shaft and converting it to later spline, there are two common approaches. One, is to find the top 12 inches or so of a 49 and up Ford splined shaft, cut your shaft, sleeve it and weld back together at the desired length. The way I prefer to do it, is determine the overall length of splined shaft needed. Then take a 50's era Ford splined shaft, cut to length, machine the lower end and press on the 48 Ford worm. Then ***emble the stock steering box with the new, shorter splined shaft. Shorten column tube and shift rod to match and it will all look like it came frim the factory that way. Neal
It should be noted that you need a '49 to '57 shaft. In '58 Ford removed the horn wire inside the shaft thing and went to a solid shaft.
Good point on Ford cars. Ford pickups used the hollow shaft up until at least 1960. Not sure after that.
I'm wondering if he got a '56-62 full-size shift lever if that wouldn't fit in place of the '48 lever. That way he won't bust his knuckles on the dash when shifting...
F1 trucks were the first with a splined steering wheel and shaft ..... maybe you could swap over the internals to maintain the sedan box mounts etc. Not sure on the length differences between a '48 sedan and a '48-'52 truck column ..... but you could be lucky. Just throwing it out there.
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