recall wheel

[tallhair]

We've had a discussion about most all of the factory wood grain steering wheels including the 1967 only "recall" wheels awhile back. There were actually two different versions of the 1967 "recall" wheel. The original version that featured an opening, or slot in each of the three spokes and the second version which had horn button bars installed in each of the three spoke openings. Chrysler offered the second version with the horn button bars as an effort to address an issue that was brought to their attention. The issue in question was that drivers were getting their fingers cut, or hurt when they stuck their fingers into the openings in the steering wheel spokes while driving. This problem was caused by the sharp edges in the spoke openings and since the spokes were chromed, dealers, or customers themselves were not able to fix those sharp edges without damaging the chrome finish, so the horn button bars were added as a temporary model year fix. In 1968, rather than staying with the horn button bars, Chrysler decided to redesign the spokes and that redesign was used for the 1968 and 1969 wood grain wheels.

Below is the link to the DCR thread (with pictures) about the wood grain steering wheels.

http://www.dodgecoronet.com/forum/showth...call-Wheel

Richard

that other thread must be closed or somthing. I was going to ask what this was over there but said I didn't have permission.

Can you tell me if this is correct for 66 or 67 or both? Also I have an early Sep 67 built 68 R/T .. anyone ever seen one of the 66/67's wood grain wheels on an early R/T from the factory?



side view

[thebankerstoy]

Hi,

Any of the threads located in the "Tech Archive" forum are closed to additional posting, they are saved in that forum to make them easy to find.

As far as your horn button above, no that is not correct for the 1967 wood grain wheels. It doesn't look like the 1968-69 horn buttons either, so I'm not sure exactly what it's from, but if you can give me the Chrysler 7 digit part number off of it, I can try to figure out what it is.

Here is the 1966 wood grain wheel with the solid spokes used in 1966 only.



And the 1967 wood grain wheel, both with and without the horn button bars.





And the 1968-1969 wood grain wheel with the redesigned spokes and horn button.

[tallhair]

Thanks banker. I'll try to get the part numbers a little later.

The wheel it came with look like the first one you posted .. the bright spots half way down on the left edge of each spoke are from the flash

[ws27]

I'm pretty sure that's just a 67 (maybe 66) charger wheel.


Richard, the first picture is what I always though was a Valiant wheel.

[tallhair]

Sorry for any confusion I didn't think it was a recall wheel .. just trying to confirm if its a 66 and / or 67 b body wheel and / or A body

[thebankerstoy]

Sorry for any confusion I didn't think it was a recall wheel .. just trying to confirm if its a 66 and / or 67 b body wheel and / or A body

No problem here. While there was only one wood grain steering wheel used for the A and B-Body cars from the factory in 1966, (part number 4016VTT) there were several different horn buttons used on the wheels for various Dodge and Plymouth models. It's my fault for not specifying that the horn button that you showed was not correct for the Coronet models, which is what I was talking about.

Rich, you are correct, the horn button that tallhair has does look to be from a 1966 Charger.



And the "recall" steering wheel with horn bars with a slightly different horn button from a 1967 Charger.



Richard

[ws27]

Hey Richard, I've been thinking that the recall wheel with the horn buttons was just a pre-production version. I have yet to see that wheel installed on a production car.

As a matter of fact, the only modern picture I've ever seen is the Ebay ones. They picture above is from sales literature.

There was one on the infamous 67 500 Hemi that was seen in a few commercials, but that's it.

Do you have any other info?

[thebankerstoy]

Hey Richard, I've been thinking that the recall wheel with the horn buttons was just a pre-production version. I have yet to see that wheel installed on a production car.

As a matter of fact, the only modern picture I've ever seen is the Ebay ones. They picture above is from sales literature.

There was one on the infamous 67 500 Hemi that was seen in a few commercials, but that's it.

Do you have any other info?

Hello Rich,

Below are some various conversations and information regarding these 1967 wood grain wheels. I can't verify if any of this information is correct or not, just offered as opinions, as information gets blurred after 47 years and counting. We also know that the Chrysler Corporations "record keeping" wasn't very good back then either, but even though the 1967 wood grain wheel is called the "recall wheel", I've never seen any official notices anywhere that shows Chrysler actually issued recall notices for these wheels, so unless someone has proof otherwise, I would agree with those who say that these wheels were never actually recalled officially by Chrysler.

Regarding the extremely rare 1967 wood grain wheels with the horn bars placed inside of the spoke openings, some mention has been made that this was the original design for the 1967 wood grain wheels, but Chrysler designers became concerned that drivers might get their fingers stuck between the openings in the spokes and the horn bars, so they were never installed except on a very small number of the early wheels as seen on the Ebay auction. This might also account for the sharp edges on the spoke openings, as with the horn bars in place, this would not have been an issue. Once again, this is just an opinion and not backed up by any factory documentation.

Richard

1966-67 Dodge Charger Source Guide

http://www.chargersourceguide.com/steeringwheel.html

For B-Bodies Only web site thread.

http://www.forbbodiesonly.com/moparforum...ymouth-GTX

Steering Wheels By Mike web site page.

http://steeringwheelsbymike.com/WheelsPage3.html

RKMCCA web site showing a 1967 Dart GTS for sale with the A-Body wood grain steering wheel.

[URL="http://www.rkmcca.com/car/1967-Dodge-Dart-GTS/717#!/18508"]http://www.rkmcca.com/car/1967-Dodge-Dart-GTS/717#!/18508

[/URL]1967 Dart GTS convertible with the 67 A-Body wood grain wheel.

[tallhair]

Thanks Rich and Richard. Appreciate the assistance