I was looking for a different steering wheel for a 50 Olds I have, going to change the column also, which got me thinking what year steering wheels fit what year cars. When did the splines change, or did they? So let's hear what everyone knows for sure about this.
The splines are not the only thing you need to worry about, if you want the horn to work, and the turn signals to cancel, and for it to look "right". The size of the turn signal switch changed over the years, and they changed the arrangement of the horn contact, and the turn signal cancel cam. Of course early cars didn't always have turn signals, so the steering wheels were different in that regard also.
My '37 Chevy truck is tapered, the '40 gear box I put in was splined, and a '46 I had for awhile was splined. All three were 3/4" diameter shafts.
I am using an early Chevy C10 column in one of my Buicks, and the spline is the same for the 41 Buick Sports wheel I am using. Like Jim said, the signal light arrangement differs as Buick offered them in 39. Because the Buick arrangement was larger and used a cam to cancel the signals, a little adapting will be needed.
I didn't know GM changed steering wheel splines? I have a late 1990's column in my '39 Chev and I put a '53 Chevy steering wheel on it with no problem at all.
A lot of 40's and 50's Buicks had a way different spline with a very large diameter, a m***ive nut holding the wheel on. Corvair had it's own special spline after 1962 I believe. As DaleSnyder said above, Cadillac had it's own wonky one for a long time. There's no one singular GM spline. The most common Chevy one did run for a really long time though. I have a '53 Chevy parts car in my back yard that I stuck one of those late 70's 4 spoke Camaro style wheels on it just to steer it around and it fit on the spline fine.
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