Here's a little more on how I got that adapter to work. I'm sharing because it seemed to me someone should be selling adapters to just bolt up the standard S6 steering wheels to older Corvettes. But it's not that hard to modify one of the universal 1/2" adapters (in earlier photo) to make it work.

The inner ring of holes on the thing fit both the stock hub and the new wheel, but the outer ring of holes is spaced further out. I just used a drill bit and small round file to ream out the holes, made them oval shaped basically, then filled the holes with epoxy and drilled the holes again in the right place. I did it all with a hand drill instead of a press so it was a pain, things didn't line up exactly right so had to keep making holes a little bigger. But those new holes are just pass through, the threads are in the hub. I then countersunk them so screws would be flush for the wheel to go on top of them.

 

Then, what to do about the horn? The new horn button just has a couple of wires coming off it. So how to make that work with the weird ring-with-a-tab-with-a-gasket-and-a-flange-that-spreads-out-thing?

What I did was cut out a hole in the middle of the adapter so the stock ring/flange thing would fit through. (I forgot to get a photo but pretty much cut out the circle I marked in silver in previous photo.) That was a pain to get the circle cut out the right size so the flange thing fit through it. But then, I just slid the female spade connector from the wire that came with the horn switch onto the tab that pushes down on the contact in the hub. Had to be careful because the wire is then hot and can't contact anything, but I just slid the insulation sleeve up a little so the spade would touch the contact in the hub but not contact anything else.

I then attached the ground wire that goes to horn button to one of the 3 screws that holds the plate thing on. Done, works great. (There was a little more to it, had to grind down 3 spots on the back of the adapter to clear the 3 screws for the ring but wasn't too hard.)

I forgot to get photos before putting wheel on but if I take the wheel off again, I'll try to remember to get some. I also stuck the Corvette badge on, I know it's not for a '73 but looks OK.

 

After all that, I was thinking the bolt holes on the new wheel are only off by 30 degrees. Is it possible to adjust the steering linkage up front under the car by that much? Then a standard S6 steering wheel could just be bolted on. Didn't think to ask about this earlier...

 

Yes, you can lengthen one tie rod and shorten the other to center the wheel. Use a paint mark to keep track of the rotations. Try one full turn on the tie rods to start. As I recall, that was about right to center my wheel by about 30 degrees.

 

Thanks! My adapter worked out, but if I find the steering wheel is too close, I can get it a half inch back by removing the adapter and trying this. Might cause clearance issues with the horn button though; needed the extra space there for the wires.

 

I've been working on mounting new seats and was going to post what I'm doing. Would interior work like this be better in the Tech or General forum? Just looking for opinions; wasn't sure where to put this steering wheel thread back when I started it.

 

Newer generation forums might care more, but for the C3s it’s basically a wash