RELOCATE STEERING WHEEL??

eflexter

eflexter

Eddie Flexter
A real pet peeve of mine is that the instruments on my 86 are hard to see. It's like the steering wheel is too low or something. Has anyone tried to relocate the steering wheel to make the instruments more visible? (Or for any other reason?)
Ed.
 
You can adjust the angle on the column by adding wahers

Here is a bit from the "Big guy in a little car" thread that might help:

The angle of the steering column can be changed quite easily. (If you already have the seat out, this is a little easier to do.) The first step is to take the lower cover off the steering column. This is held on by four Phillips head screws. Once the cover is off, you will see the steering column mounted on a plate, held up under the dash by four bolts. The two nearest you are studs with nuts, the two farther away are bolts. Loosen all four, so that the column is free to move a little bit. Take the two bolts all the way out. These are 6mm bolts, that take a 10mm wrench. Now the steering wheel can be tilted upward. Fit about three or four 6mm flat washers between the steering column mounting plate and the bracket above it and put the bolts back through. This can be tricky, so have patience. Snug everything up and test the fit with the seat in place. It doesn't take much to get a lot of clearance. You can add more washers if you want more tilt, but you may have to change to longer bolts. Once the fit is to your satisfaction, tighten up all four of the bolts holding the steering column and re-install the lower plastic cover. This modification also helps with the "disappearing" tachometer of the '79 onward models.
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You are not supposed to see the instruments on Italian cars. You drive them with the help of passion and feeling, not boring hard data like speed and RPM. That is for German cars.
 
Ha! Carl, you think that...

Carl Pålsson said:
You are not supposed to see the instruments on Italian cars. You drive them with the help of passion and feeling, not boring hard data like speed and RPM. That is for German cars.
Click to expand...

the data given by Italian car instrumentation is accurate? :D

Pete
 
Gauges hard to see

There is a post in the archives where a guy in Europe re-did his gauges with the Speedo and Tach adjacent to each other and that fixed the problem. He had made a metal panel to attach the stock gauges inside the original gauge cluster. I read it while reviewing Bob Browns original gauge thread but I cannot find it at this time. Fuel is not a primary gauge, but Fiat seems to think so. All we need is the Tach and the speedo, in that order. The rest can be hidden.
Bob T.
 
Notice the tach rotates counter clockwise? This was one of the ways this problem was partly addressed.

Re-locating the steering wheel has a different set of problems and does not completely fix the instrument visibility problem.

It's worth noting that the 74' or early x1/9 don't have too much of a instrument visibility problem, the about 78' and later ones with the newer style instrument clusters do.

IMO, it's not that big a problem.

Bernice

eflexter said:
A real pet peeve of mine is that the instruments on my 86 are hard to see. It's like the steering wheel is too low or something. Has anyone tried to relocate the steering wheel to make the instruments more visible? (Or for any other reason?)
Ed.
Click to expand...
 
Pete Whitstone said:
the data given by Italian car instrumentation is accurate? :D

Pete
Click to expand...

How would I know? I can't see them... :)
But seriously, I have seen this on several other italian cars. The monkey-arm driving position (straight arms no matter how close you adjust the seat or wheel) is another typical trait of Italian motoring.
 
Here's what I did:

This is a street car, so I wanted to keep things relatively stock. I absolutely hated the original gauges... I could never see the tach.
All the gauges are now visible in "real life"
1GB240-1.jpg
 
eflexter said:
A real pet peeve of mine is that the instruments on my 86 are hard to see. It's like the steering wheel is too low or something. Has anyone tried to relocate the steering wheel to make the instruments more visible? (Or for any other reason?)
Ed.
Click to expand...

What if you just extend the wheel outwards a bit?
Something like this perhaps:
http://www.ogracing.com/catalog/2-Car/item-883-SPARCO-2-STEERING-WHEEL-EXTENSION
I'm sure I have seen these with a collapsible design too, for extra safety.
 
Just change the steering wheel

Much simpler fix: just change the steering wheel. I have a steering wheel in my car that I got in the wrecking yard in 1987 or so. I don't remember what it was from, but somebody told me they think it's from an 850 spider.
Fits perfectly; the diameter is only very slightly larger, but I have a full view of my tach (which I swapped with a '79 so it winds the right way).
 
Nicely done.

Looks like spidahh gauges. (I'm from NH so I say spidahh!)
Do you have photos of it before it was re-installed?
 
No pictures of the back side. I made a harness to connect to the cars'. Pretty simple. Added a couple of idiot lights in the center console for brake and hazards.
 
There's guages under the wheel?

What for?

HAHAHA!

Kinda like RAUL JULIA in Gumball Rally... tearing off the rearview mirror and saying... "What's behind me is not important..."

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8FnNiplNTg"]YouTube- Raul Julia as Franco[/ame]

Skip forward to 1:20 if you want... Wish we could always drive with such PASSION...

Oh... at 4:10 Raul has another steering wheel option you might wanna consider also... HA!
 
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