15" steering wheel on a non PAS P6

B

BobTaylor

Member
I have a few cracks in my steering wheel and need to replace or repair it. I also have a 15" Moto Lita wheel and was wondering if anyone had experience of using a smaller wheel on their car. Is it manageable on a non PAS P6 2000?
I appreciate people will have differing views re originality etc but am just concerned with the practicality of using a 15" wheel due to the heavy nature of a P6'6 steering. (since putting some oil in my steering box mine is much lighter than it was though!)
 
Hey there, I had a 14" wooden steering wheel on my non pas v8, took it off as it was small and required some man handling to go round, round a bouts and corners.
But 15" might be better?
 
Hi Bob, I have a 14" Moto Lita on my PAS P6B and to be honest, it can be a little heavy manoeuvring - although it is at present parked up at the end of the factory and does need a lot of steering to get it out. Parking, driving around town etc, is no problem at all though. Be nice to be able to see the dials a little better though :oops:
 
I have a 15" wood rimmed Moto Lita wheel on my non PAS 2000TC. Parking speeds are a little heavy, but not awful. The big advantage is in steering feel at speed. The car feels much more communicative now, a real improvement.
 
I have replaced my steering wheel with a 16" wood rim semi dished one. I appreciate that purists may not approve but it feels much better. My old wheel was cracked and generally tatty.
The slightly smaller wheel does not obstruct vision of any instruments, and requires no extra effort when parking at slow speeds, but on the open road just feels far more "connected". I will post a pic soon, but I am happy with the look.
Bob
 
Bob

I've only just seen this thread and note that you appear to have resolved your question with a 16" wheel.

I did fit a 15" MotoLita to a P6 2000SC back in the '70s and then transferred it to its replacement P6 3500S. Both cars were non-PAS. I don't recall any issues at all with either car, nor do I remember the steering of either feeling heavy. I must have preferred it as I wouldn't have transferred it on to the second car.

I don't have access at the moment but I seem to recall one of the motor magazines, either Motor or Autocar, running a lomg-term 3500S and fitting a 15" wheel and reporting positively about it. However, I can't recall whether that car had PAS.

I was obviously a bit younger then and having just passed my test, obviously didn't have much experience to draw on for comparison. Most cars did not have PAS then, so maybe drivers were used to a different degree of steering weights, whereas today most cars, even the smallest 3-cylinder city ones, seem to have it. My experience of some early PAS cars is that, with the benefit of hindsight and progress, many were completely devoid of steering feel.
 
tonys said:
Bob

I've only just seen this thread and note that you appear to have resolved your question with a 16" wheel.

I did fit a 15" MotoLita to a P6 2000SC back in the '70s and then transferred it to its replacement P6 3500S. Both cars were non-PAS. I don't recall any issues at all with either car, nor do I remember the steering of either feeling heavy. I must have preferred it as I wouldn't have transferred it on to the second car.

I don't have access at the moment but I seem to recall one of the motor magazines, either Motor or Autocar, running a lomg-term 3500S and fitting a 15" wheel and reporting positively about it. However, I can't recall whether that car had PAS.

I was obviously a bit younger then and having just passed my test, obviously didn't have much experience to draw on for comparison. Most cars did not have PAS then, so maybe drivers were used to a different degree of steering weights, whereas today most cars, even the smallest 3-cylinder city ones, seem to have it. My experience of some early PAS cars is that, with the benefit of hindsight and progress, many were completely devoid of steering feel.
Click to expand...

I have done a few miles now with the new 16" well and I am very happy with the feel. Very low speed parking is not too bad either, but I think that a 15" would be just too much for me. The main reason for changing was the poor state of the original, I was not too bothered about having a smaller wheel, but this seems a good compromise.
 
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