Steering wheel

by Tom Jennings, edited by Frank Swygert 01-25-2026

What can I say, it’s a steering wheel. This one is a 15″ Mooneyes special 60’s metalflake wheel, made by Grant. No one makes an adapter specifically for early AMC/Ramblers with Gemmer steering boxes, but long ago I managed to figure out that Grant adapter #10159 fit the splined shaft just fine. I had a 15″ (black) Grant on my 63 Classic, where it obscured the gauges and made difficult steering even harder; I yanked it off and gave it to AMC-lister Mark. Years later when I started this car Mark sent it back to me!

The American steering column housing is much larger than the Ford adapter 10159 is for ( in Grant kit 3294, early Mustang/Ford) , so I cut an aluminum disc to the same diameter, chopped out the center of it to fit the bottom of the adapter, drilled and tapped three #6-32 screws to hold it to the adapter.

The turn signal canceller I made by drilling the adapter for a roll pin, but I missed the mark; so I cancel turns manually. Bummer. Be more careful when you mark and drill the hole!

I also had to chop down the tall nut to fit the horn button. Horn wiring was easy, the American simply runs a wire down through the hollow steering shaft, through the box, and I just crimped on a female bullet connector.

I originally tried to hack up the stock wheel, to use the hub as an adapter. Didn’t work. Basically it’s all molded plastic around a welded wire structure, with a small splined center. Photos are included below. The wheel was ruined, but it was badly cracked anyways. This is the method recommended by Grant for a hard to adapt wheel, just doesn’t work well with this one.  Grant is assuming the wheel was made to use a two or three bolt puller, not the screw in the center of the wheel Nash/AMC type the early American uses. You might be able to make it work though…