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Mk3 Spit steering wheel position


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Question for the hive mind….

The steering wheel in my ‘68 Spit is sitting about 2.5cm to the left of the driver Centre line.

looking at the steering rack, bulkhead penetration and the dashboard brackets I can’t  see how it can be anywhere else than where it is. 
 

so - is this a bug or a feature? The car has had a complete restoration and in all other mechanical respects it appears to be correct and nothing is out of alignment that I can see…

any thoughts ?

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its a fact all triumph drivers have an Offset  

its not just Triumphs the staggered alignments of columns and pedals have plagued the car industry for years 

most moderns have easy up down but cant think of any that give a right left adjustment  

us humans just have to accommodate the mismatch 

Pete

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6 minutes ago, Colin Lindsay said:

It's an offset; the column comes through the bulkhead very close to the gearbox tunnel and then angles outwards to more or less the centre of the drivers area. Very cleverly done in that most of us never realise that it's not completely flat in front of us...

Yes _ when you look vertically down you can see the steering wheel is not quite parallel with the dashboard. The only way I can see to get the wheel centred and square would be with two UJs in the column assembly….. and that aint gonna happen!

Funny thing is I just dont recall the offset on the ‘69 Spit I owned when I were a lad…..memory does funny things. (I don’t recall the noise and draughts either!)

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18 hours ago, Peter Truman said:

could the position of the wheel also be dictated by the necessary size of wheel to be able to easily turn the wheel when parking and the min reqd distance between the wheel and the drivers door?

No, it's dictated by the length of the driver's legs. I bought a lovely 15" wheel for the GT6, ex-Opel if I remember correctly, for pennies online then found that when it was fitted I couldn't get my legs in under it and when I did, I couldn't release the pedals. It should have been dished. However I suppose in theory that the size of the wheel could be increased if the column was adjusted upwards, but it would need to be very far upwards to be too close to the door for comfortable driving. I wonder has any owner ever modified the steering column with a UJ to have the wheel at a straighter angle? Too much hassle I suppose given that any joint would require to be along the tube, and might get in the way of the driver's legs. Sunday morning musings over coffee...

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