Removing the steering wheel

[Graham Robertson]

I want to go back to the original steering wheel on my car. I tried removing the existing one but with no success. I unscrewed the nut and tried pulling as hard as I can but it will not budge!

Any suggestions?

Graham

Graham 1982 TR7 dhc Pharoah Gold

[Workshop Help]

1. Squirt a dab of penetrating oil on the exposed splines.
2. Wait a while.
3. Whack the underside near the hub with a rubber mallet.
4. Apply an ice bag to your bruised face while wishing you would have kept the nut loosely attached to the steering column.

Mildred Hargis

[Graham Robertson]

Thanks Mildred,

I'll give that a go at the week-end!

Regards

Graham

Graham 1982 TR7 dhc Pharoah Gold

[Ianftr8]

Graham,

To be really safe, if you undo the nut and leave it attached by four or five turns when it does finally come loose you shouldn't need Mildred's ice pack or a trip to A&E.

If you wind the nut up to the top of the thread and then give a good heave on the steering wheel whist you get your trusted assistant to give the collumn a sharp thwack with a hammer this should break the wheel away from it's splines.

You should then be able to undo the nut and just lift off the wheel.

Good luck

Ian

Ian Freeman
1979 TR8 DHC
Triumph Courier
Triumph owner for 31 years

[tr7jim]

Graham,

Ian's comment is a must, but you can pull on the steering wheel and the same time use your knees to push also.

This might be the little extra force you need.

Jim

[Hasbeen]

Ian has got it right, but I'll add one minor point.

Wind the nut up to exactly flush with the top of the column. Then when you hit it even a bit off square, you won't damage the thread on the column.

It doesn't take all that much pull on the wheel, & the hit doesn't have to be very hard, it's the shock that moves the thing.

Hassbeen

[Cobber]

<font size="2"><font face="Comic Sans MS">I'll go one step even further than Hasbeen and use a soft face dead-blow hammer.
Pops it off every time! The plastic face protects both the nut and the shaft and the dead-blow puts all the energy into the hit with none wasted in bounce.</font id="Comic Sans MS"></font id="size2">



"Keep calm, relax, focus on the problem & PULL THE BLOODY TRIGGER"

80'Triumph TR7, 73'Land Rover (Ford 351. V8),
'89 Ford Fairlane
'98 MG-F, 69'Ford F250.
76' Ford F100

[Hasbeen]

Surprised at you Cobber, an old bloke like you. I thought you'd use a copper drift, like I always do. [}:)]

I just didn't mention it here, as I doubted these young blokes would know what a copper drift was, [:D] & most of them don't have 3 hands.

Hasbeen

[Cobber]

<font size="2"><font face="Comic Sans MS">I used to use a copper drift for this, but these new fangled soft faced dead-blow hammers are the go now!
I still do have and use various copper and brass drifts for some stuff, but not for stuff like this. As you say, to use a drift you need 3 hands, the first to pull on the wheel, the second to hold the drift and the third to swing the bloody hammer! [:D]</font id="Comic Sans MS"></font id="size2">



"Keep calm, relax, focus on the problem & PULL THE BLOODY TRIGGER"

80'Triumph TR7, 73'Land Rover (Ford 351. V8),
'89 Ford Fairlane
'98 MG-F, 69'Ford F250.
76' Ford F100

[Graham Robertson]

I've actually got a soft faced dead blow hammer on order but tried Mildred's solution first i.e. spraying some WD40, leaving it to penetrate - and then pull! It came off quite easily!

Picture of my original wheel now re-fitted:



I'm happy with it but although it does not show in the photograph the silver paint on one of the spokes is scratched and chipped which annoys me!

Graham

Graham 1982 TR7 dhc Pharoah Gold

[Maxwell]

Graham. If it stops raining I'll send some pics of mine tomorrow to let you have a look-see. Maxwell [:)]

3.5 TR7 V8 Drop Head \ Oliver
0.7 Smart Roadster \ Oscar

[saabfast]

Mine was scratched too. I removed the silver parts (just prise out gently IIRC) and sprayed them with silver Hammerite.

Alan
Saab 9000 Stg 1
Saab 9000 2.3 FPT Auto
Saab 9000 2.3 LPT Auto
'81 TR7 DHC

[FI Spyder]

I would remove, fine sand down any sharp edges, put on some skim coat filler in crack and chip to bring up to surface (see auto parts store or body shop supply store) sand it down smooth then prime and paint with hard long wearing paint (I guess Hammerite in UK, don't know) or try silver paint for calipers which is pretty tough. Normal body paint might not be abrasion resistant enough.



- - -TR7 Spider - - - 1978 Spitfire- - - - 1976 Spitfire - - 1988 Tercel 4X4 - Kali on Integra - 1991 Integra - Yellow TCT

[silverseven]

Mine became dull, thin and faded from the years.... so just theis summer had our garage bodyshop repaint the 3 trim pieces in two-stage base/clear the same silver they were using to respray a car in the booth.
There really wasn't much prep to do, I simply scuffed them down and washed them beforehand ....nothing more than that!

Ron.

[TR Tony]

Here in the UK silver Plastikote is a good match. As always careful prepping is the key to a good finish, but with the Plastikote you don't need anything else.

Tony

<font size="1">1981 TR7 FHC Cavalry Blue
1980 TR7V8 DHC Jaguar Regency Red - sadly sold!
1977 TR8 FHC EFI Factory development car Inca Yellow</font id="size1">