Steering wheel on 350se

[ohm5s]

I don;t get the chance to compare my car with others. My steering wheel is not dead straight, is this normal?  It slightly faces to the right (RHD)  I can see no adjustment

[Martin 280s]

Have your wheel alignment checked and get them to set it up with the steering wheel dead horizontal. It worked for me.

[Brian Crump]

Assuming that your alignment is accurate and the steering components are not worn, this

may

be correct. My wheel is ever so slightly to the right on a dead flat road despite all else being correct. I contacted MB to inquire about this and was assured it is usually the case.
Sometimes there is a slight turn to the right built in to account for the left hand camber of a right hand drive vehicle. Thus, on a normal road camber, your wheel should be dead centre if the car is travelling true and slightly to the right if the road is true flat - which few road are because otherwise they would not drain water.
However, the degree of turn is VERY slight and you should have yours checked by someone who knows and cares about precision.
Alternatively, the wheel position is easily adjusted.
Regards,
BC

[ohm5s]

Its a bit hard to explain what I mean. If I am sat in the driving seat the left hand part of the steering wheel is nearer to my body than the right side, the whole thing is on a slight angle

[Brian Crump]

OK - the column comes up dead straight - the wheel may be turned slightly to the right - on mine.
Are you saying your column is not dead straight? That is the spokes are not true. Or are you saying the wheel itself appears to be slightly bent?
Maybe a picture would help?
I once had a rally car where I bent the wheel in order to make more room for my leg to use the clutch.
BC

[ohm5s]

I don't have the car here but I'm sure the steeering column comes through the dash at a slight angle

[WGB]

It sounds like the wheel is bent - has a driver taken a hit and bent the wheel or steering shaft.

The car itself in RHD mode should have a slight tendancy to pull to the left(and Visa versa for LHD).
This was designed by M-B and is present in all models new and old so that if a driver loses conciousness the car will naturally steer away from the centre of the road.

It can be adjusted out and M-B in the past gave out the necessary geometry changes and of course the wheel can be straightened and/or replaced on its splines.

Bill

[s class]

Ohm this is normal.  Guys, what he meand is the face of the wheel is not parallel to the dash.  We are so used to seeing it we don't notice it.  I only became aware of it when I first sat in a LHD 116, which of course is opposite to what we are used to.  107's also have this characteristic, and it is VERY much more obvious in 107's than 116's due to their more curved dash. 

Ryan

[Bandolero]

Yes, I know what he means.
Nothing to worry about, it's quite normal.
My 70's Chrysler was the same except more so.
You don't notice it when driving, but you do notice it if you take a close look when you are not driving the car.

[ohm5s]

exactly, I wondered if it was to make steering easier when in the cruising position, one arm on the window 

[Brian Crump]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!
Now I getcha.
BC

[oscar]

I'll back you on this one too.  At first I was going to say something about the steering coupling but yes ohm, I know what you mean too.  But sitting back, admiring the view, ie the cluster thru the wheel and the circle and star up front etc, etc, you don't usually notice.


How about this one?
As an aside, whilst admiring the view, all of you with a clock/tacho combination, look at the clock from your normal driving position.

Notice anything??

Visualise a line between the 12 and the 6,
the middle where the hands are attached appears off centre to the left.  

Such was the thought process at the time, I believe it was deemed appropriate to minimse parallax error for the driver in regards to reading the time.  Talk about pedantic.   Nice touch though.  I'm just glad they didn't go digital too soon.

[oscar]

When I took the hands off it was more obvious.  The hole was off centre and there's no way one could put it back together skewed.  My smaller steering wheel is a little in the way to demonstrate an exact straight on view but this is close enough.  The following photo is up and slightly to the left of the clock.  A straight on shot would demonstrate the offcentre alignment moreso.

So there you go, most useless post for the week.

[oscar]

now, you realise there is some adjustment possible when installing the face plate on this unit

Of course I don't.     And I refuse to believe it

To be honest, when I had it apart, I looked and looked and I couldn't see how this misalignment could be fixed, then thought it must be deliberate to account for the viewing angle of the driver.  I can't prove it at the moment as my photos aren't good enough, but I'm sure the hole in the faceplate was off centre too.  Maybe this is an old v new clock difference.  We might have to wait till our new caps pop again before we resolve this issue

[oscar]

Actually, I might throw all this in the clock thread!