Changing the Steering wheel
Why?
Why not?
Instructions
This guide holds true for the Mazda 323 Astina 1.8 model without airbag.
Before you start, try to make sure your steering wheel is straight - it will make it much easier to fit the new wheel. I know the steering wheel in these pictures is not straight, but the guys who did smash repairs on my car refitted the standard wheel a degree or two off, so I wanted to fix that.
1 Undo the nut on the bottom of the steering wheel, this will allow you to pull off the horn 'button' section of the steering wheel, leaving you with picture 2.
2 Take off the large nut from the center of the steering wheel - this was VERY tight on my car, and took a big effort to get loose. Don't worry about the two smaller screws to either side of the main nut if you don't have a steering wheel remover - you can just pull the wheel off.
3 Brace your feet against whatever you can find, and pull like hell! The wheel is likely to be jammed on tight! Once you get the wheel off, it should look like picture 3. There are two points on the yellow plastic jacket which should line up to two holes on your boss kit. There is a small spring loaded brass/copper knob to the right which needs to make contact with your boss kit for the horn to work. You don't need to take the plastic housing off here, but if you do, it'll look like picture 4.
4 The boss kit I fitted had a problem in that the brass ring on the base of it - which is used to connect up the horn - did not sit low enough to make contact with the spring loaded brass knob. To fix this, I had to gently prise it up with a screw driver, and pack some filler underneath (I used some thick copper wire (no plastic) here.
5 Once you've made sure the base of the boss kit makes contact with the horn knob, slide it on, and hold your steering wheel in front of it to make sure that the holes on the boss kit CAN line up with the holes on your steering wheel while it is straight. If not, take it off, and turn it until it is possible to put your wheel on straight.
6 Put the main nut back on to hold your boss kit down (picture 6).
7 My boss kit did not have two connections for the steering wheel horn button, however, the steering wheel horn button required two connections... so I made up a short wire with the appropriate connector (from the old wheel) on one end and a 20 cent round connector on the other end, which I could fasten with one of the nuts holding the wheel down.
8 Hook up the horn button, place your steering wheel over the top, screw in all the nuts with your allen key, make sure its all tight. Voila! Picture 8.
And yes, I fitted a 3200mm steering wheel (standard is 3500mm) because I'm tall and find it hard to get my legs under the standard wheel. No problem with the smaller wheel.
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