M3 SMG steering wheel + clockspring fitment issue

[anandoc]

Hello folks,

I bought a M3 SMG steering wheel with paddle shifters along with a SMG clockspring in December in order to do the SMG paddle retrofit on my '04 330i auto. Now that spring is just around the corner, I thought about bringing out the parts and do some reading up and testing to ensure I am ready to do the work as soon as it warms a little bit.

Tonight I was playing with the steering wheel and the SMG clockspring and tried to do a test fitment just by laying the steering wheel on top of the clockspring as it would once it is placed on the steering column within the car and ran into some issues. I wanted to make sure everything is in place before I tear open my car to do this mod.

The picture below shows the underside of the clockspring and you can see the steering wheel placed on top. I have circled a 'notch' in the clockspring where the steering wheel's movement is getting restricted and it is not able to rotate past that notch at all. There is an indentation on the back of the steering wheel, which makes contact with the ground connector on the clockspring and this indentation seems to get stuck within the notch.

Another strange thing I noticed was that the clockspring had two stickers with two different part numbers on it (pictures 2 and 3 below). The part numbers were: 61318375400 & 61318379091 - the latter being the one which shows up on ECS tuning and various other sites as being the correct part number.

Am I doing something wrong with the placement of the steering wheel on top of the clockspring? If anybody has a clockspring and steering wheel lying around and try to do the same test that I have done and report back, that would be really great. Any tips would be much appreciated.

[johnrando]

I'll take a look to see what I hv. PM me with your cell so maybe we could talk through it live.

Sent from mobile

[coby1]

did not check numbers but the notch is to "lock" the inner part of the spring onto the steering wheel so the inner part will move with the turning of the steering wheel, the outer part of clock spring is bolted down to the steering column

[anandoc]

Thanks John and Mike (coby).

The 'notch' is actually part of the outer spring body, which remains stationary. Upon closer inspection, it seems that the spring does not sit 100% flush with the back of the steering wheel when they are mounted together in the car. Which is why the steering wheel is able to clear the notch and move around.

Ofcourse I will know more when I get around to actually mounting the wheel in a couple of weeks (could we please get above 0C temps soon in Canada!). I will update the thread at that time. Thanks much for the replies - much appreciated!

[johnrando]

OK, keep us posted. GL.