Steering wheel buttons

Topic: Steering wheel buttons (Read 1858 times) previous topic - next topic

Steering wheel buttons

April 20, 2006, 09:29:03 PM

When driving my Tbird, I sometimes have trouble getting cruise control to engage. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't; I sometimes have to try several times to get it to engage. My dad believes it is a plastic connection piece behind the wheel. Does anybody else have any ideas/comments? Thanks for your time.

Steering wheel buttons

Reply #1 – April 20, 2006, 09:57:21 PM

you could pull your steering wheel and clean up the connections with steel wool or some really fine sand paper. that should fix your problem.

Steering wheel buttons

Reply #2 – April 20, 2006, 09:59:16 PM

Wow...why didnt I think of that before?? Thanks for the tip!!

EDIT: Oh wow...I told dad and you know what he said back? "Oh, I've already had the wheel off and the plastic piece behind the wheel is the problem." So I was like "Then why'd you ask me to post a question on the board about it!!!??" Argh!!! I feel stupid.

Steering wheel buttons

Reply #3 – April 20, 2006, 10:00:10 PM

your very welcome :D

Steering wheel buttons

Reply #4 – April 20, 2006, 10:05:18 PM

Next time he tries to look for something on my bird, I'm going to make sure I'm actually home at the time so I can see what he's doing so he doesnt mess me up again!! Haha, I'm very sorry about that! (in case you have no clue what I'm talking about, look at the edit I made to my last post)

Steering wheel buttons

Reply #5 – April 20, 2006, 10:21:39 PM

Ok, now I know what he wanted me to ask...

He wants to know if there's a way to fix that plastic ring behind the wheel.

Steering wheel buttons

Reply #6 – April 20, 2006, 10:30:47 PM

depending on how bad its broken you might be able to superglue it back together, but that might not work with the type of plastic. you might be better off getting a wheel from a salvage or one of the members here and replacing the plastic ring. another thing no offence to your dad but you should be the one working on your own car so you know exactly whats going on.

Steering wheel buttons

Reply #7 – April 20, 2006, 10:39:36 PM

I found one from a salvage yard that was much better, but wasn't 100%. I just used hot glue to strengthen the weak plastic parts between the rings. It's been 5 years and still works wonderfully. If yours is in halfway decent shape you might be able to repair it this way.

Steering wheel buttons

Reply #8 – April 20, 2006, 10:39:55 PM

Ha, yeah, we had the car for a couple of years before they decided that it would be my first car (I thought it was too good of a car to be my first so I never expected it haha), but he does make me do a lot of the work on it (not that I'm unwilling). He had checked the wheel back when we first got the car, so I was probably off at a friend's house at the time.

And thanks for the tip. :)

Steering wheel buttons

Reply #9 – April 20, 2006, 10:55:43 PM

the reason why I said to clean the rings is because they are known to collect corrosion.

Steering wheel buttons

Reply #10 – April 20, 2006, 11:01:41 PM

Yeah, I'll probably do that while the wheel is off.

Steering wheel buttons

Reply #11 – April 20, 2006, 11:15:43 PM

Somewhere in this messageboard there's a thread about those rings, and a part number as well. I had them literally explode into a million pieces in my car, causing the horn to start blowing by itself until I pulled the horn fuse. I now have an aftermarket wheel and relocated the cruise buttons to the dash

Steering wheel buttons

Reply #12 – April 20, 2006, 11:21:27 PM

Wow, that's pretty bad. How hard was it to find a good place to put the buttons, then hook them up there?

Steering wheel buttons

Reply #13 – April 21, 2006, 01:07:02 AM

Quote from: Thunder Chicken

Somewhere in this messageboard there's a thread about those rings, and a part number as well. I had them literally explode into a million pieces in my car, causing the horn to start blowing by itself until I pulled the horn fuse. I now have an aftermarket wheel and relocated the cruise buttons to the dash

Yeah, here is the thread.
http://www.foxtbirdcougarforums.com/showthread.php?t=723&highlight=brass+rings
When I tried the dealer originally, they wanted to sell me the whole wheel. It is great Thundergrowl found a place that just sells the rings. Did anyone ever buy them from the site in that thread?

Here was the site from the thread:
https://www.trademotion.com/partlocator/index.cfm?action=getLocator&siteid=213914&chapter=DE2JC85&appSectionid=2575&groupid=51862&subgroupid=10266&componentid=0&make=10&model=Mustang&year=1988&graphicID=JC5320%20&callout=6&catalogid=2

Steering wheel buttons

Reply #14 – April 21, 2006, 11:48:54 AM

Quote from: kingcars

Wow, that's pretty bad. How hard was it to find a good place to put the buttons, then hook them up there?

Wasn't hard at all. Here's my thread from when I did the swap:
http://www.foxtbirdcougarforums.com/showthread.php?t=4622&highlight=cruise+buttons

Just a dremel tool to make the holes, a set of buttons, and some minor rerouting of the wires. When I rerouted 'em I left the stock ones in the column and just "T"-d into 'em, so that if I ever found a good stock wheel I could swap back if I wanted.