Which GM passenger car steering wheels work on a '55 Chevy truck column?

I guess the ***le asks it all... thanks to a generous donation from the Kopper Kart parts truck, I now have a '55 Chevy truck steering column to cut up for the '31 Chevy. Anyway, the truck's steering wheel is beat, so I'm looking to put an early-to-mid 50's GM p***enger car wheel on it. Will the splines match up?


Thanks,
Ed

 

They should.

From what I can find out all Chevy steering columns have an 11/16-36 steering wheel spline.

I swapped a mid 80's Chevy station wagon wheel into my 63 Chevy 1/2 ton.
No problems, bolted right in and made for a nice inexpensive wheel that was smaller in diameter than the stock pickup steering wheel.

ChryCo's have an 11/16-36 spline steering shaft as well.
No guarantees here if they will swap with GM's or vice versa, but they may.
(Spline depth can vary a**** other things.)

 

In addition to C9's info, one thing to keep in mind is how much dish the wheel you want to use has. If you've got lots of room, or can modify the column, then this is a non-issue.

I'm looking to replace the cracked/worn wheel in my '53 Chevy 1/2 ton, and the '53 and earlier Chevy car wheels have little or no dish. Not sure 'bout the '54, but the '55 and later all have varying amounts of dish, which would put the wheel closer to the driver.

Along these same lines, most of the early-50's Chevy (and I would ***ume GM) wheels have a 17"-18" diameter. I prefer this large diameter wheel, cuz it provides good leverage and looks proportional in a truck.

The other thing I've noticed is that the horn rings for the p***enger wheels seem to be expensive, hard-to-find, or both (asusming you want to run one). But, definitely be sure to check on the dish and/or diameter requirements you may have before you drop bucks on a replacement wheel.

-murph

 

gear jammer used that column in his 31 coupe, he actually had to lengthen it to make it work to his satisfaction. The early 50s Chevy car wheels fit, although I think the column outside diameter is just a bit larger, so you have to be careful with the horn contact to make sure it clears.

 

thanks everyone for your replies. i'm going to be cutting this column custom to my application and it's going to be reallly short, so i don't think length or dish will be a problem.

squirrel, i don't quite follow you on that horn contact business. hopefully it will make sense when i get there!


thanks
ed

 

The outer tube of the steering column is a bit bigger on the truck than on the early cars, so the horn contact parts on an early wheel might hit the horn contact on the column at the wrong place. The horn contact on the column is part of the upper bearing. Just make sure it clears the steering wheel properly.

 

Had a '54 Bel Air wheel on my '55 P/U column. Only thing that was lacking was the upper shim for the column shaft, otherwise it was "tight".