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I've spend the last two days under a confined dash of a Berrien ( Meyers clone) dune buggy. It's hell to get into,... you roll over the side panel, then with the palms of your hands  on the floor,  tuck your knees against your gut and figure out how to roll a 180 onto your back....Only to discover the wire crimpers are still over on the bench... getting out from underneath there is a physical contortion event that tests your agility.

 

Ed, I know it's too late to say this now.

Wiring the dash is sooo much easier to do if you build a dash harness and make the connections on a terminal block installed in front of the drivers door. You get rid of  50' of useless 16 gauge wire serving instrument and warning lights. A 3 watt bulb does not require 16 gauge wire. The harness will be about the size of your index finger. I put it all in shrink wrap.

Horns work. I put the switches in for fitment check. The wiper switch wouldn't reach the top right hole so I disconnected the + wire and put it on my other switch (seat heaters, I think). I like the way it's looking. But. 

Looking at this....IMG_3788

I think I've got to pull the steering column and rebuild it shorter. Here's a real one. Looks like the wheel is about 2-2.5 inches closer to the gauges than mine.

Weird. I measured all this like a year and a half ago, sat int he car with the wheel in my hand. Thought I had it pretty right. 

But with the signal switch on it, the thing looks like it's farther out. I'm not sure how this has come to be.

Maybe it's an optical illusion. Anyone want to share with me their measurement from the back of the steering wheel to the binnacle eyebrow?

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OldSpyder04

 

Ed, I don't know Spyders, but making the wheels in the two photos the same size and comparing may make things a little clearer:

- The two photos are taken from different angles and with different lenses - the older car was shot with a longer (more telephoto) lens, so the perspective is compressed. Near things seem closer to more distant things than in the other photo.

- That said, it looks like the steering column in the original may emerge from the dash a little lower (or maybe farther from the tach) than in your car.

- It looks like the steering column in the original may be at a different angle from the horizontal, maybe angled a little higher, so if the two hubs were in exactly the same place, the top of the wheel in the original would end up closer to the dash

- The top of the eyebrow in the original may extend out from the dash a little farther than in your car.

- The 'collar' on the steering column in front of the wheel (whatever that's called) seems to be wider on your car than in the original.

- It's very possible, though, that I'm delusional. The older I get, the less I seem to understand about how many things work in this world.

 

 

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  • OldSpyder04

Thanks, guys. My wheel is 5 inches from the top of the eyebrow. I could maybe tuck it in an inch if I pull the shaft and cut it and re-slot it for the coupler, then pull the column, cut off the mount and weld it back on an inch further up. Doing that would push the signal switch in an inch too, to about an inch and three quarters from the dash. 

I was all set to get on with it just now when I reached down and pulled the light switch.

IMG_3807

If I push that signal switch housing in an inch it'll be very tight to the light switch.

I do think when I tighten up the light switch it should straighten out and clear OK though. 

That should leave the wheel about 4 inches off the dash, pretty close to where Carlos G's is. 

I also figured out how this happened.

When I popped the wheel on a month or two ago and discovered the steering was a bit sloppy, I also noticed that the steering box was cocked forward a few degrees. The shaft from the box was not lining up perfectly to the steering shaft. 

So I turned the box just a little on the beam so the shafts lined up, then tightened everything down. That probably pushed the steering wheel into the cockpit about an inch. 

@Kevin - Bay Area  I really like that A car. Had not seen that one before.

@Stan Galat I'm 5'7" and 155 don't make me come over there. 

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Last edited by edsnova
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