Steering wheel hub adapter that WON'T crush the turn signal canceler
 

Something that's bothered me for years is the hub adapter that came with my Mazdaspeed wheel in my FC crushed my turn signal canceler. I chocked that up at the time to my negligence, as I know it's easy to damage if misaligned. I sourced a replacement canceler and this time was much more cautious during install, but still crushed the canceler. What I observed is that the hub adapter will not "bottom out" until the canceler is destroyed. I believe there is a taper on the spline, so I imagine this adapter just was not designed to keep the canceler.

I've seen threads over the years where people confirm keeping the canceler with an aftermarket wheel. So the question is, what brand hub adapter have you had success with? I'm glad to buy something else if it will work, but I would like to avoid destroying these turn signal cancelers...they're getting harder to come by!

Maybe instead of changing the hub, change the cancel sleeve., which is after all, a pretty simple piece.
A trip to Ace Racing would probably provide the raw material for only a bit of money.

I'd start with an ABS plumbing fitting with a suitable ID and the thickest wall available (OD is not an issue as I recall). and use brass tubing as the fingers that engage the wheel.
Or whatever presents itself.

the FC has a different offset than the FD/1st gen/Miata. so you get to crush parts, or it won't engage at all

clokkers solution might be easiest, and if you had one, there might be a smaller cancel cam on some other Mazda

Interesting idea...I recall the sensor/canceler itself getting totally destroyed, not just the collar, but that may be a product of the collar getting sandwiched.

If you "totally destroyed" not just the collar but the cancel mechanism itself, I would suggest you not work on cars anymore.
That would take a serious amount of force to achieve and most normal folk would have felt something going on long before complete ruin was reached.
I'm hoping you just misremembered the situation.

Let's assume the mechanism is intact...all you need to do is install the hub without the collar and see how much space you have to work with..
Make sure the hub is fully tightened down as it appears that it goes further than the stock wheel would.

You're always one for the theatrics :hahano:

You may be right, I'll have to remove the wheel and assess the damage. Perhaps "totally destroyed" was a little theatrical as well.

Feeling/hearing the crunching of plastic is not the issue, but getting the hub secured is. Once the damage was done, at the moment all that mattered was the hub is secure.

Um, feeling/hearing the crunching of plastic is definitely the issue and I don't feel it's "theatrical" to point that out.
The ole "the ends justify the means" defense, eh?

Forgive me for not being clear. My point is identifying there was a clearance issue is not a problem, as you suggested may be the case. I was aware. Getting the hub sufficiently tight crossed paths with the damage to the collar/canceler, I was hoping it was going to just be a "snug" fit. I lost that gamble.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I'll investigate the extent of the damage when the cold snap passes.

Good.
I hope this all works out and you end up with self-cancelling turn signals.

Reporting back as promised, it looks like the canceler did not sustain any damage (from what I can see). The collar did start to crack, and I must have removed the collar before further damage was done. I'm going to try and have the collar 3D scanned and shortened, hopefully solving the issue.

I crushed the canceler in my S4 using a Momo hub too. There is definitely a difference between FC and FB/FD/Miata hubs. I ended up finding a used FC-specific JDM hub on eBay and it had a small lip that bottomed out on the steering shaft before the cancelerer would get destroyed. You could probably make a little 1/8"-3/16" thick spacer that would accomplish the same thing. It'd fit on the steering shaft beneath the hub, with an ID slightly larger than the splines and an OD slightly less than the canceler collar. I'm not sure where'd you'd find the proper FC hub, otherwise. NRG and Momo both don't have the proper lip and there weren't any name brand markings on my JDM hub.

Thanks for the information. I've never seen a hub with the feature you described, so must be very uncommon.

For anyone in the future who's wondering, I asked an ME at work to model something similar to the stock collar up and we 3D printed a few options shorter than the standard part. First try, a part 50% as tall worked perfectly. Couldn't be happier.

I found a hub on eBay that has the correct spacer ring. It''s labeled Momo, but is different that the Momo I own. I think the one they sell now is universal Miata/FD/FC, when in reality it doesn't have the spacer for FC, but the splines fit.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Mazda-Rx7-S...Condition=3000

Trim the cancel ring and call it a day. In 2019 I'm sure someone could 3D print a "short" verison too.

Here's a thread of mine from years ago about the same issue:
https://www.rx7club.com/2nd-generati...e-play-980952/

That's exactly what we did, as mentioned a few posts earlier. We don't have a 3D scanner at work, but modeled something close enough. I've put hundreds of miles on the car since, and my turn signals are still cancelling :)