Alfetta steering wheel removal

[GreyGTV6]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Inner Circle I just came upon this thread and as I was dissecting my Spider anyway, I gave it a try with the thread+puller method. As the puller arms ain't worth a dime (I already have some experience with them), I had to quickly 'manufacture' a suitable piece of metal with three holes to combine with the puller, that... ...got the job done in about 15 minutes, but got somewhat dented in the process. (The screws weren't damaged as I bought them specifically for pulling earlier, they were the strongest in the shop.) I banged on the steering wheel softly but it didn't care. It popped free while I was wrenching the puller. All in all, it was amazingly easy, not to mention fast, destruction-free and cheap, at least compared to my earlier attempts. So thanks for the tip :-) (The little holes are M6 and 60mm apart. I checked my Alfetta GTV and even my Sei and they both have these little holes, although the layout is different.)

[Inner Circle]

Perhaps next time we can put it on the other way around and it will straighten itself :-)
Actually it was my fault: the centerpiece of the puller is shaped like -o- (cross section; into the "o" goes the main threaded bar and the puller arms were disconnected from the end of the "-"s) and on the first try, I positioned it so that its longer side was perpendicular to the piece of metal. So it basically tried to "cut" the metal in two in the middle, like the edge of a knife. When I saw how the metal was bending, I turned the centerpiece 90 degrees so the "edge" was parallel to the piece of metal, placing much less stress on it. And it didn't bend any further.

[don hodgdon]

Once I realized that the steering wheel was mounted on a tapered shaft and was not coming off by conventional methods, I went to have a chat with the proprietor of the local Italian repair shop. He lent me a tool he made that probably cost about a dollar to fabricate. It's a flat metal plate, about 1.75" square, small enough to fit down inside the wheel hub, with two slotted holes in opposite corners, and two M6 bolts a couple of inches long with washers. After removing the center nut on the column, the plate is placed over the end of the column, the bolts go through the holes in the plate into the threaded holes in the steering wheel hub. Tighten the bolts down with equal pressure on each side and the wheel pops right off.

The real nightmare is trying to get an aftermarket hub off, one without the threaded holes.