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993 RS Steering Wheel Install

ARP

Well-known member
Joined
24 Jan 2015
Messages
274
Thought I would put up a guide to my 993 RS steering wheel install in my 993 Carrera 2. The original wheel felt clunky and slightly overlarge - the 993 RS wheel looked like the business for a change. Inspired by Jackal (as usual) I set off on this project.

I bought the wheel, which came with the 964 horn contact pad & 2.8 ohm resistor from type 911, as a mini kit for the install:

616262304564.jpeg


The airbag original wheel in the car:



I also found a 964 steering cowling on eBay, which was fortunate, but remember to buy the correct version to accomodate your stalks & cruise control etc.

First things first: disconnect the battery & go and have a cup of tea for at least half an hour. This will dissipate any charge left in the airbag circuit. Turn the wheel 90 degrees (make sure the car is positioned somewhere sensible because you are about to immobilise the car), and remove the two star headed screws at the back of the original wheel - they are sat deeper than expected, but you will know when you get a bite on them. Undo them both and gently remove the airbag pad by disconnecting the red plug at the back - put it well out of the way.

Things will now look like this:


Time to remove the steering wheel. Find a 24mm socket & socket extension and loosen the nut. Remove along with the washer, and keep safe you will need these again. Tug on the wheel and remove. Remove the 993 black plastic cowling (4 screws), now you have full access to the clock spring. I pulled it gently forwards and secured it with a couple of cable ties for good measure.

Here goes:


Unplug the clockspring connectors down in the dash - 2 orange connectors which you can find by putting your head under the dash. Remove the clock spring assembly & keep safe. Remove the rear of the 993 cowling.

You should now be looking like this:



Remove the rubber side grommets sitting on the stalks - I didn't need these again.

And the clockspring on the floor, secured with the orange connectors like this:



Time for another cup of tea, and off to do some wiring.
For this step I bought a soldering iron, some heat shrink tubing, some solder & flux and a multimeter, along with a helping hands device. Everything was from Maplin. Order online & collect in store. The resistor came with the mini kit, but I'm sure the same could be had from Maplin, or RS Components.

First task was to cut the orange connectors off the clockspring, in effect ruining the clockspring. I had a quick look on eBay but decided to butcher what I had. I think you could find a one to buy, and I think the 996 & 986 shared the same clockspring so they should be commonly available.

Time to make up the resistor airbag fooling loop. Using the helping hands device I used flux and solder, and a steady hand to solder the resistor into the loop. Remember to slide your piece of cut heat shrink tubing onto the wire before you commit to solder. Check the pins inside the orange connector for continuity with your multimeter, then slide the tubing over the resistor and warm with a hairdryer to give a nicely sealed in resistor. All nice and neat and ready to fool the airbag. I didn't take any photos of this but Jackal will keep you right. I took time to do this neatly.

Next is to install the revised horn circuitry. Fit the 964 contact plate into the housing as such:



I found a little thump with a hammer got it to sit in correctly. Now things got a bit more tricky but only down to the fact I needed this:



I tried to make my own brass contact bush but failed, and eventually found this Porsche Contact Bush was the answer.

Pulling the connector box off the back of the stalk assembly and carefully opening the plastic hinge revealed the position to connect up the horn circuit. Taking the other orange connector and using only one of the wires I soldered the contact bush to this cable and fitted it into the long arm space in the connector block - this is where the 964 contact plate pokes through to make the connection. Feed the wire into its guides and close the connector block and reattach it to the back of the stalk column. Nearly there.

Time to install your new 964 cowling:



I used new screws to keep it all nice and tidy, and also took time to clean out all the hard to reach bits in there and around the dash pad area.

Time to go upside down again and connect up the orange connectors under the dash. I also used some cable ties to keep it neat down below.

Time to slide the new wheel all the way down the splines and make sure it all lines up correctly. Install the washer & nut, and retighten. Give a pull & a push to check it feels right. Check that the copper connection at the back of the wheel connects with & brushes the copper contact pad - I gave it a little prise with a screwdrive to make sure it keeps contact. Side on you can see the gap.

Wrestle the pad onto the wheel - this took a bit of persuasion but you know when you've got it right:



Turn on the ignition - note no airbag warning light and check the horn works. Success!

Inspired by the following:

http://www.jackals-forge.com/lotus/

And,

http://rennlist.com/forums/993-forum/667291-993-rs-steering-wheel-installed-wiring-photos.html
 
What a coincidence.

I did this exact same thing tonight after work.

Actually that's not strictly true... I tried to fit my RS wheel and discovered that I needed a horn contact, a 964 steering column cover, and also needed to butcher the wiring. Things which I have never heard mentioned before whenever RS wheels were discussed.

I now have the RS wheel fitted, with no horn, the airbag light on, and an unsightly gap around the base.

Great.

Once I eventually find all the other bits I need, I'll have to re-do it all.

Kind of wish I'd left the 3 spoke black leather 996 Turbo wheel in there. It fitted perfect, looked great and is a direct replacement.
 
GT4 - I never found your write up of this. I see you also mention the contact bush.
 
Matt has everything at Type911
Including the cowling
It's straightforward to do it.
I preferred the Atiwe 964RS wheel

Good Work
 
ARP said:
GT4 - I never found your write up of this. I see you also mention the contact bush.

Sorry about that.

It was split out into about 13 different threads (addressing independent or closely related mods)

But then it got merged (which really messed it up as later comments relevant to each independent thread overlapped in time and hence interlaced making no sense)

And of course the start of later mods is just lost in the middle somewhere (even I have to use the search function instead of going through every page to find the mod I was looking for :roll:)

But hey, the Mods don't get paid, so in a sense there is no contractual SLA


I bought all the parts from OPC Hatfield (except the Atiwe)
 
Whilst I can see that they look good, I cannot imagine what would inspire me to fit a steering wheel without an airbag? I'd be as likely to remove the ABS.
 
Nicely done Guys! The RS wheel looks great.

Does the airbag have a critical role if the occupant is wearing a seatbelt? My understanding was that the airbag was more for the Americans who tended not to use seatbelts.

Our airbags also don't have two stage settings so anyone regardless of physical size gets the full treatment in the event of deployment. If someone has stats on airbag related injury V seatbelt usage injury, that would be interesting to see.
 
Sutton said:
Does the airbag have a critical role if the occupant is wearing a seatbelt? My understanding was that the airbag was more for the Americans who tended not to use seatbelts.

Deaths in frontal crashes are reduced about 26 percent among drivers using safety belts and about 32 percent among drivers without belts.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2006-01-02/airbag-statistics
Yes, modern bags are better (go figure...).

Sorry, didn't mean to hijack thread. Won't respond further off topic! ;-)
 
Tobesetc said:
Whilst I can see that they look good, I cannot imagine what would inspire me to fit a steering wheel without an airbag? I'd be as likely to remove the ABS.

I honestly couldn't care less if a car had an airbag or not.

I've owned loads of cars that don't have airbags, and right now own 3 cars without airbags: mk2 Golf GTi 16V, 993, and a 912.

Are you seriously suggesting you wouldn't buy a classic or sports car because it didn't have an airbag?
 
No, I definitely would not buy a car without an airbag. But nor do I want to hijack this thread, it looks great and each to their own.
 
I tend to think safety should be viewed rather holistically. Safer to drive sensibly without an airbag than like a loony with one, for example.

If I really wanted to be as safe as possible, I'd go everywhere in the XC90. Or statistically, by bus. But where's the fun in that?

I have the wheel and boss to change mine, by the way, just waiting to pick up a 964 cowl.

:thumb:
 
Can't argue with that gunner. I've seen that someone painted the exposed metal black with a felt pen as they wanted to see if they really needed the 964 cowl. I can't remember if they went on to order it in the end.

Going back to the linked article, I had seen that before. The reason for my question is that the University of Georgia study has refuted the findings published by the NHSTA.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/06/050602011343.htm

In fact the University goes quite a lot further in their assertion.
 
Tobesetc said:
Whilst I can see that they look good, I cannot imagine what would inspire me to fit a steering wheel without an airbag? I'd be as likely to remove the ABS.
You would if one went off in your face, broke my specs and I was only doing 20 ish. Glad to get rid of the unexploded bomb.
Having said that I do have a full harness,
 
Apologies for the morbid curiosity....

Did the airbag deflate afterwards? I'm guessing that you didn't hit it with a lot of force.
 

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