I am writing in response to a call from Bill From Sacramento. As a long time Ford guy (Note: the Navajo is a sister to the Explorer), I have seen his issue quite a few times, 92 Explorer, 89 cougar… During the late 80’s to early 90’s Ford used a substandard foam padding in their leather wrapped steering wheels. This padding tended to melt in the heat and ooze out of the leather through the stitching. Your friction tape idea will only work short term before the ooze finds its way through. Been there done that. The 2 solutions I found are: get a non-leather wheel from a bone yard and swap it out. In 1992 this vehicle did not have an airbag so with a proper wheel puller, this is an easy one bolt job, the horn pad just pulls off. A Navajo wheel may be hard to find but there is an abundance of Explorer wheels out there. The existing horn pad will even fit so Bill can retain the nifty Mazda Logo. (Just be advised that the 93 wheel looks identical but it is ever so slightly different. It will bolt up just fine but he will need the 93 horn pad too if going that route.) Alternately, he could entirely remove the leather and clean the wheel with Goo Gone or Goof Off than re-pad the wheel with 1/8" foam from Michael’s (Cut to fit, use a little bit of glue to hold from rolling forward and back and tape it in place) than over the foam, re-leather the wheel with a Wheel Skins wrap. Note: after the leather is off, the actual wheel is REALLY thin so the padding is definitely necessary.
Thanks for the informative post, but that call on the radio show is likely many years old.
All those shows are repeats now.
^
I remember that particular segment, and it is from AT LEAST 10 years ago…
How quaint it is to see people responding to the show as if were a new broadcast. I wish I was that out of touch with reality. Seriously.
it s like deja vu all over again. let s go get a pic a nic basket!
still, it s useful info…