Steering wheel spline compatibility

I have a Cadillac wheel off a 2000's vehicle. I went to swap it with the one in the wagon and it turns out the splines on the wheel are different (smaller, more splines). I thought all these things were the same spline pattern, but that's obviously not the case.

I did some searching around and didn't come up with anything. I could drill out the splines and install an insert, if such a thing exists. Or perhaps the steering column shaft from the tilt mechanism to wheel could be swapped out, but I'm just brainstorming here.

Anyone have any other input, or perhaps has a Cadillac that needs a new steering wheel?

The spline count is the same. The keys are in different positions, but that shouldn't matter. I did some more checking and the problem is that the 2002 spline has a smaller diameter than the 95 one. I'm guessing our cars have an inch-based shaft and the later one is metric.

I may just try hitting all the splines with a jewelers file and see if I can open them up and flatten the tips enough to get it to mate up.

drill the steering wheel splines out...
slip it over the wagon splines,.

plug in the mig welder,.

or,.

IF you are really good with a dremel,.

grind the splines on the wagon shaft down in a cone shape, skinny down to fatter,.

do the same to the wheel,.(keep the hole concentric,..)

under normal circumstances and regular driving,. i'm pretty sure in my mind that you wouldn't be able to put enough torque to the wheel to make it slip,..

I put a caddy wheel on at wagonfest one time, just to try it,.I think dave said it was an escalade? wheel,.
. it fit fine,

Nick, I did some more careful measuring. The splines on the wagon are 11/16 exactly (.6875) - so it looks like all I'd need to do is open up the Caddy wheel splines with an 11/16 bit in the drill press and it'll go right on. I'll pick up a bit tomorrow and we'll see how that goes.

Ok, so I was incorrect there. 11/16 is the OD of the steering wheel shaft, not the ID of the splines. I picked up a 21/32" bit which puts you pretty close to the .66" of the inner diameter. I took the Caddy wheel and drilled down a tiny bit to see what the outcome would be, and it completely drills out the splines on the Caddy wheel. So much for that idea.

That kind of puts us back to Nick's suggestion of just drilling the hole out and welding the wheel on, but I'm not sure it's worth the effort.

If only I had a way to cut splines.

lamune wrote:

If only I had a way to cut splines.

three corner file and a lot of patience,.

phantom 309 wrote:

three corner file and a lot of patience,.

That's way more patience than I think I have!

The Escalade wheel would probably have been the better way to go. Since that's built on an old truck platform, it may have the same splines as our old car platform does.

lamune wrote:

The Escalade wheel would probably have been the better way to go. Since that's built on an old truck platform, it may have the same splines as our old car platform does.

So did you try the Escalade steering wheel ? If so how did it turn out ?