KJ Steering Wheel Variation + Clockspring

[mercdudecbr600]

Hi All. Thought I'd share a little piece of information I recently learned - the early and late style KJ steering wheels are (very slightly) different. This makes a difference in how the steering wheel engages the clock spring when you are fitting a late style steering wheel to an early style clockspring (and visa versa I'd suppose - assuming the clockspring varies from the years). Splines and all other fitment are the same.

The early style (guessing 02-04) steering wheel has a broad flat spot on the frame's backside that detents the spring loaded button on the early style clock spring. The late style (again, guessing 05-07) has a recessed 'pocket' on the backside frame that hugs the spring loaded button and allows it to engage each detent of the clock spring revolution - guessing every 45* rotation. As you might guess, fitting a late style KJ steering wheel to an early style clocksping/KJ means turning the steering wheel creates a lot of racket and, I'm sure, would QUICKLY destroy the clock spring internally.

Meaning, to fit a late style KJ steering wheel to an early style KJ, you will have to tape down the clockspring button for the steering to operate correctly.

Someone probably already knew that here, but I didn't and it was a real head scratcher for a few hours. Hopefully this helps someone else.