decided to keep the wheel also. after taking it apart, i think i'll be able to mod it so it's easily removable, like my current 360 degree wheel (check my sig for my machine project and scroll down to see the spinner that pops out for 360 degree racing).
it'll be a bit more complicated than my current wheel, what with the internal wiring that runs thru the shaft. there are 19 wires that come thru, the exact pin count of an hdmi cable. so i'll remove the wheel, rewire it so an hdmi cable is hanging out and then on the slide out box, i'll have an hdmi female plug. slide the box out into place, pop the wheel on the shaft, plug the cable into the box.
so my slide out box will be wider and have two shafts on it, one for 360 degree racing, the other for 270 degree games (with the pedals working on each).
i'll update my project page whenever i get around to doing this.
thanks for the input!