FFR Steering wheel installed

[AZPete]

Factory Five says an adapter is needed to mount their leather steering wheel in an 818, but they don't sell adapters. Now I know why. There are many adapters available and they are tricky to install. I wanted the steering wheel further from me so I bought the thinnest I could find from NRG. On the first try, the horn button hit the column bolt, the steering wheel was too close to the wiper stalk and the turn signals didn't cancel. I don't want to be that old guy who has his left blinker on all summer. So, here's what I did.

I removed the steering wheel center (2 screws from the sides) to find the air bag. I carefully pried up the yellow tabs to disconnect the wires.
1 steering wheel air bag.jpg

Not having a steering wheel puller, I was able to pull the wheel at 3 o'clock, then 9 o'clock, and then at 12 & 6 o'clock to loosen it. Keep the nut loose on the column bolt so you don't pull the wheel into your face! Then, I saw this plastic disc with a yellow label. I carefully removed this disc and then removed the short plastic tube from the center of this disc. It's fastened by plastic tabs and notches so care was needed to avoid breaking anything. Discard the long white tape.
2 disc w yellow lable.jpg

The plastic tube is what cancels the blinker after a turn so I mounted it onto the NRG adapter ( the round thing with a copper surface). I filled the gap between the tube and the adapter with aluminum tape, drilled and tapped 2 holes and then screwed the tube onto the adapter with the plastic tab on the left where the turn signal lever is. The horn connection is the small wire spring riveted to the black plastic with a wire on the back side of the rivet. This rubs on the copper surface as the wheel turns to maintain contact for the horn button on the FFR steering wheel.
3 adapter w tube.jpg

To keep the center contact of the FFR steering wheel from shorting out on the column bolt, I added six 1/4" spacers as shown here. My knuckles are close to the wiper stalk but I think it will be okay. If I keep turning on the wipers when driving, I'll add 3/8" spacers.
4 spacers on st wheel.jpg

Next, I removed the cruise control switch from the old WRX steering wheel and mounted it on the steering column. I'll show what I did in the electric forum section.