Custom steering wheel stalks
eAfter trying to source and modify VW Audi and Opel stalks, I asked myself a question: “What’s wrong with the original stalks?” Except they are broken and ugly, everything else is fine, so I started restoring them with my personal touch.
I found all the spare steering columns that I had and disassemble the parts.
As you can see, the state of 40-year old parts that have been stored in the shed is not so great.
Ok, at that point I knew what I had to work with.
First thing I got my hands on was the lock.
I filed a custom key and all the lock pins by hand.
A perfect fit to a totally custom key.
After cleaning and greasing, the lock part was finished and I could move on to stalks.
I have drilled the rivets, and disassembled only the turn signal stalk, since the wiper stalk was working fine, except for the window washer switch. When you see the picture, it was obvious why there where contact issues inside the unit.
There was a failed attempt of welding the worn down slider, but at the end a bigger pin was inserted.
The unit was held together originally by rivets. I presume the manufacturer’s intention was replacement of the whole unit in case of a failure. After the repair, I got an M2 tapping tool, so the unit can be assembled again, this time with screws.
After the stalk mechanism was restored, I could move onto the levers.
I designed the simplest aluminum levers that I could think of, together with push buttons.
After little more hand sanding and tapping the thread for fixing screw, levers were powder coated and ready for installment.
Since I added another push button, I decided to grind a small channel for the wire.
The wire was glued and I could move on.
For the ground wire I tapped again M2 thread in the center and it was ready for the push button soldering and cosmetic touch.
The finished item looks exactly like I imagined, clean and fully functional.