Opinions on repro rosewood steering wheel?

[budnate]

camarojoe,
you have a very good point, I have wondered the same thing for years, My car has what I believe is the orig Walnut wheel still in place and is in perfect condition, and From what I have gathered it sate in the Arizona heat for many years then Southern Cal for awhile, it now sits in a barely heated garage in Wash, where the temp is anything but consistent.

Bud.

[Charley Lillard]

At one time I had 14 Rosewoods tucked away in a Gun Safe that stays at a pretty consistent temp. I was convinced that at least 2 of them cracked just sitting there so I sold them off over a period of time as I was worried more would crack. Not big cracks, but cracks.

[budnate]

Charley, could they have come from the same run of wheels??? the two that cracked??

meaning a bad batch of plastic, or the process was not done correctly by the workers??. does that make sense or am I crazy??

Bud.

[camarojoe]

[ QUOTE ]
At one time I had 14 Rosewoods tucked away in a Gun Safe that stays at a pretty consistent temp. I was convinced that at least 2 of them cracked just sitting there so I sold them off over a period of time as I was worried more would crack. Not big cracks, but cracks.

[/ QUOTE ]

At least its good to know I'm not the only packrat out there.

[JoeC]

Hey whats wrong with pack ratting? If the Yenko's were not pack rats there would be no vin numbers or other cool Yenko stuff

[olredalert]

------Is it possible that these cracked wheels suffer from a lack of power steering? Without PS you really tug and pull at these wheels. Maybe minute cracks that you cant see are made from this overstressing and these just get worse as time goes along? Am I off base here? Even a car with PS and a plastic wheel could suffer over the years from this kind of stress. One trip thru downtown Detroit can produce enough road-rage to ruin a perfectly good wheel........Bill S

[Supercar_Kid]

I think it's typically more of an expansion and contraction issue than actual hauling on the wheel. It seems mating molded plastic to a steel core just doesn't create a steering wheel with great longevity. Rosewoods and walnuts seem to always crack at the spokes. (3,6, and 9 o'clock) It seems to make sense to me that these wheels are most rigid at their spokes, and the plastic isn't, therefore the slightest shrinking or expanding of the steel core will create a stress crack in the plastic. The plastic seems to have a tendedncy to shrink, leaving gaping 2" cracks fully exposing the steel core in some instances. Take a look at '69 standard wheels, they seem to crack as often or more often than an N-34 type, and again, always where the bar meets the rim, and especially where the wheel mounts to the column. I think the design of these standard wheels is even less forgiving of an out of synch expansion and contraction of the core and plastic covering. It seems this was a common problem on similarly designed wheels of all makes and models, it's not just a Chevy or even GM thing. That's probably why the hard plastic wheel seemed to all but disappear by '73 or so, being replaced with the big squishy rubber wheels we're used to seeing in more modern cars. I agree that manual steering and excessive pulling on the wheels, especially from getting in and out of the car, can help a wheel that's ready to crack get strated, but I also agree with Camarojoe that I've never seen a vintage uncracked wheel crack, or even an already cracked one get any worse. I think most wheels cracked while they were fairly new, if they were gonna crack. Any original owners here remember their wheels cracking, or even going to a dealership under warranty to complain? It might be a neat experiment to try to make one crack by putting it in the freezer and then rapidly warming it up, although I don't think myself or anyone else has an uncracked rosewood they'd like to subject to such an experiment.