the steering wheel

I was a standstill when it came time to get the steering wheel off. All it basically is is a large nut attached to the threaded end of the steering column. That came off easily. I thought that it may be simple after that, that it would slide right off or maybe it would be lightly pressed on. I bought a decent 3 jaw gear puller and tried... 50 some odd years had formed a nice neat attachment of rust between the column and the metal center section of the wheel. The original bakelite is already cracked and pitted, so I wanted to be careful and try to preserve the wheel. But I had no idea how I was going to remove it. I tried stacking 3 quarters under the center section of the puller and all it did was put a hole through the quarters before popping off. The wheel stayed firm and unmoving. I couldn't believe it. I soaked it in PB Blaster for weeks, but still no results.



I met another local jeeper who had an old military steering wheel remover kit. It was basically a large c-shaped device, sort of like a c-clamp about a foot in length. At the bottom, the end was flared into two fingers that fit exactly underneath the wheel and clasped the column. At the top was a screw fitting that tightened down against a couple of different sizers that came with the kit. It was like a solid socket that had pins of differing sizes that fit into the hollow end of the tube with the bolt removed. Craig had also welded another socket onto the top of an old steering wheel bolt with another spacer in there if you had a horn button still attached, so that it wouldn't get mashed. A couple of cranks and the wheel simply popped off with a satisfying light 'pop!'