Cougar steering wheel

[Royce]

I just purchased a 68 Cougar XR7. It has a 67 steering wheel.. Someone change it or did early ones have the ugly wheel.. I have had good luck buying cars sight unseen.. My luck ran out on this one

[badcatt]

It's not likely a factory installed item. It could be a P.O. didn't like the  68 wheel and replaced it. Do you know the build date on this Cougar?

[Royce]

date code is 27B

[gregaba]

North west classic cougars has a rebuilding service for them and sells rebuild ones. I have ordered several things from them and the quality is top notch.
Greg

[thatdarncat]

I parted out a ‘68 XR7 years ago, crawled through many in junkyards, they all had the ‘68 style steering wheel. My parents bought a standard ‘68 Cougar new, I still have it, it also has the typical ‘68 style steering wheel. That car has a scheduled build date of 12B, my parents purchased it on February 29th 1968. My guess is someone changed the steering wheel on yours in the past. 

I’ll add - West Coast Classic Cougar is my first choice for parts too, bought a lot from them, both repro & used.

[Royce]

For the life of me why would a guy change back to that awkward looking 67 wheel.. I guess no accounting for people's bad taste.  I have been perusing West Coast Cougar site.. A bad purchasing decision lands me with a car that needs a lot of work

[machyoung]

I've got a blue hanging around if you're in need. Let me know...

[Gaugster]

Well I think it is cool that you picked up a Cougar. It's a bummer that it's not in as good of shape and you hoped. Yes all the 68's Standard or XR7 should have the same (non-67) steering wheel. Most likely it was swapped out. Very un-likely but technically possible that the whole column was changed to a 67 version. 68 columns are just fine but do have a two-piece rod design that allows it to collapse during an accident. This is another source of steering wheel slop (lost motion). However, all the other components like the box, pitman arm etc... need to be inspected first.

+1 for WCCC. They have great YT videos that explain a lot about these cars.

[Royce]

Thanks guys.. WCCC is indeed a great resource.. I had an extra brake booster which they were happy to give me $125. for the core .. Sadly this one is not a good candidate for anything but a total restoration.. A Fla car that the owner failed to disclose was from Pa.

[TomP]

The 68 steering column is bigger diameter than 67 where the wheel sits so you would have a gap where you couid see inside to the signal switch.