My standard steering wheel has seen better days, and the 'Nismo' steering wheel cover that I got off eBay looks absolutely poo :( , so I'm looking at aftermarket wheels. :hyper:

 

But, I want to retain the cruise functions somehow - has anybody done this successfully? If so, do you have to relocate the switches/where to/how do you do it etc.

 

Your wisdom is appreciated folks.... ;)

My standard steering wheel has seen better days, and the 'Nismo' steering wheel cover that I got off eBay looks absolutely poo :( , so I'm looking at aftermarket wheels. :hyper:

 

But, I want to retain the cruise functions somehow - has anybody done this successfully? If so, do you have to relocate the switches/where to/how do you do it etc.

 

Your wisdom is appreciated folks.... ;)

 

Luke at the Z centre said he would be experimenting with this when his car is finished at the body shop, I want to do the same thing so I'm waiting for a definite answer as to how to do it and then but all the neccesary bits from him!

I've done it on mine, my missus got the car at work but i'll take and post a piccie when she gets back.

 

Basically, I bought a steering wheel, and the guys sent me a cheapo boss with it, so I made it fit the Hicas sensors etc inside. So the Hicas is working for a 25.00 boss and I also retained cruise by drilling the wheel and making up a mounting bracket for it. The best bit was I designed it so it supports both sides of the control unit but from only drilling one hole in the wheel ;) so it hardly notices.

IIRC Matty's MOMO wheel does this.

You can easily extend the wires down the steering column and mount the cruise panel off the old wheel on the dash/console area like Macca did.

 

I just binned the whole cruise system on mine ;)

 

This is a crap image as i've broken the lense on me camera and had to remove it so it cant focus :S, but anyways you get the idea.

 

IMHO it looks ok

 

This gives you a basic idea of what I did, the shape of the bracket which was made with painted black strong steel (from the back of the wheel). I did it this way because I didnt want more than one whole drilled in the S/wheel.

 

Just took a little grinding / filing and shapping of the steel to make the bracket and a bit of drilling.

 

For anyone who wants to know about the Hicas etc as i've been asked a fair few times;

 

The Red Circle shows the disk under the s/wheel. Its a plastic disk and is exactly the same layout as it was under the stock. Attached to the disk which rotates with the boss on the S/wheel (to sense movement) is a plastic lug on the bottom of the disk, this is supposed to move as mentioned with the boss so the disk rotates and senses the movement of the wheel.

 

I modified a standard Z31 boss which I got for 25.00. The way I did it was by marking where the lug would need to go on the new boss, then first drilling with a pillar drill a hole to start. Then grinding and filing out the whole to the correct shape. Also on the top of the disk that rotates is a plastic block conector for the controlls to the cruise unit. I did the same sort of thing with this. The result was that the boss slid over the lug and connector and would allow them to move with the new boss much in the way the old wheel did.

 

However, the new boss is meant to be fitted without this disk etc in place, and so doesnt slide down enough on the shaft enough to pass onto the spline and make it safe to use, also the boss will just push against the plastic disk and so that wont work either!

 

So the next part was to grind down the rear of the boss so that its more of a V shape at the back, and so will fit further on in the centre than the sides. However you need to make sure you've got enough material to work with, as otherwise you will weaken it too much to be of any use.

 

After grinding and shapping it, I then bolted and through the kind use of a friends workshop welded three metal supports on the back of the boss to support it from the weaker edges. TBH, the welding probably wasnt needed but I wanted to do a propper job on it, it was already more then adequate enough with the extra supports bolted in place (it would take all of my weight 14 1/4 stone and we couldnt even distort the frame in a vice!!)

 

The result was, it slid down on the spline perfect, bolted on with the existing nut, and misses the disk by about 1mm. All works fine.

 

New wheel on, and you just plug the block connector back on which gives you the live feed to the horn, and the wires to the cruise control. As the original mechanism is still in place, it all rotates perfectly with the wheel so you dont have to feck around changing any of it!!

 

Not to everyones taste maybe, sounds like a pain in the ass, but using a couple of odd bits of steel (im sure everyone has some lying around in the garage / shed) and a couple of tools, it took probably two to three hours to do, is mint, I retained all the features of the standard wheel and saved 125.00.

 

Cheers

 

Steve

I like that steve, make me one!!!