Another Momo Question, Early or Late Adapter Options

[BeatNavy]

Santa brought me a Momo Prototipo for my '72. I know I need the hub adapter, and I know there's an early and a late adapter, with the early one being NLA, and that putting a later adapter (accordion type) on an early car is not ideal. What I can't tell in this case is the specific cutoff. Is "early" in this case '71 and '70? Will the late adapter (p/n 8002) work with my '72?

If I need the early adapter, are any of those third party early adapters being sold a decent option?

TIA.

[BeatNavy]

I just want to close the loop on this one to hopefully provide more info on the Momo early/late adapter question, as I know it can be confusing. At least I was confused. Maybe this will help someone.

With a model year '72 (Nov '71 build date) I was able to get the Momo on using the late adapter (p/n 8002). It fits well, and everything functions correctly, but it was not a totally straightforward process.

I was initially confused because the adapter would easily fit onto a late steering column that I have, but it would not go on at all on my '72 for some reason. After confirming that early/late columns should have the same spline count/OD, and after lightly cleaning up the finishing on the ID of the adapter, I was able to get it onto the column. For some reason the tolerance was slightly different on each column (or perhaps there's something else interfering). It is still a very tight fit, and once on it does NOT like to come off.

The other thing that's confusing is installing the horn / canceling ring. The mounting holes don't seem to line up, and part of the adaptor housing seems to interfere with the horn grounding wire mount. I read on here that someone had to Dremel out part of the adaptor to get it to fit, and that's what I did as well. Finally, because of the offset of the mounting holes, I had a hard time getting the horn ring to mount evenly and in alignment with the hub. It took me a few minutes to figure out why the horn would sound when turning the wheel far to the right or left until I noticed that the horn contacts would end up grounding to the adaptor housing. I may have been better off just drilling new holes to mount the ring. Anyway, with some fiddling it's working now.

Ok, my lessons learned (FWIW, YMMV): 1) Late adaptor (p/n 8002) should work with cars built at least as early as 1st week of Nov '71 and later. 2) Tolerance of the adaptor may be very tight. I believe it should at least go onto the splines of early or late cars, but early cars will leave a significant "gap." 3) You will likely have to make adjustments to get the horn/canceling ring to fit properly - it may not be 'plug and play'. 4) This applies to 914/4, not /6 which has a separate adaptor p/n.

All said and done, I love the new steering wheel.


Damn, looks like I need to dust and vacuum a bit...