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MG MGB Technical - STEERING WHEEL REPLACEMENT

WHAT TOOLS DO I NEED TO REMOVE THE steering wheel OF A 1979 MGB. CAN I PURCHASE A STEERING WHEEL PULLER ANY WHERE THAT WILL WORK WITH THIS STEERING WHEEL? WHAT ARE THE STEPS IN REMOVING AND REPLACING THE STEERING WHEEL?
CLARENCE BLAKELY

Clarence,
What I did...MAY work for you:
Spray with penetrating oil of your choice, I use PB Blaster. Do something else while it soaks.
Loosen the nut holding the wheel on until it's about 1/8" above the threads, to protect them.
Sit behind wheel with one leg pressing up on bottom of wheel and one hand pulling at the top of the wheel.
Hit the nut with a hammer (I used an 8 oz. one), but not too hard.
Took only two taps on mine to free it up.
Remember the car has a collapsable column so don't hit it hard.
I used anti-sieze when I installed the new wheel.

Mike
'79B
Mike Janacek

Must admit that the WD40 penetrating oil worked a treat for me, too. In fact, I just wiggled it back and forth after leving it for 10 minutes.
Remember to leave the nut on when pulling on the steering, it avoids a bruised nose!
Martin

Clarence,

I have found that if you are on good terms with your local garage that they may loan you a puller rather than buying one.

I have to pull the steering wheel off my 73B this spring and although I've read the threads on using hammers, I trying this last year with no success. I didn't use WD40 before hand so I might go that route before borrowing the puller.

Mike
Mike

Clarence,
I went and bought a cheap puller from K mart for about 10 dollars. It worked the first time, then bent the second , so I had to drill three hole in a fairly solid piece of steel I happened to have. ie, I suggest makeing your own by doing just this. Two long bolts for the wheel and a larger bolt and nut for the centre.
Peter

i have been told that you do not hit the centre off the column with a hammer on an mg. you can on other cars but because off the plastic things in the column it will f@*# it up. the spray oil , loosen the locking nut a bit and take the car for a drive, carefully, the road vibrations should do the trick.
good luck
ronnie cathers

I would nix the road trip as I would think having the wheel come off at a roundabout wouldn't be wise.

The reason you don't want to smack a MkII or later shaft w/ a hammer is because they are collapsible by design and may crumple. My advise is to tap gently from below at different areas of the wheel and of course, leave the center nut on. Other than this a wheel puller is the only other decent way to remove.

Saying that, when I replaced mine a few good taps were all that was needed on my 34 year old B.

Good Luck.
Luigi

If you put lots of pressure behind the wheel with your knees before hitting the shaft (not the nut) with a hammer (or place a hammer on the shaft and hit that with another hammer if your aim is less than perfect) you shouldn't damage the collapsible column short of using a sledge-hammer. Alternatively push and pull opposite sides of the wheel. Just slacken the nut, leave plenty of threads engaged, to avoid a face full of wheel.
Paul Hunt

Ronnie;

You can also damage the steering column by banging on it from below. The steering shaft is in two pieces that come together in the center via an interlocking flat on each end of the shaft sections. It is built this way so these two sections can slide together along the long axis of the column, when the outer column "collapses" in a front end collision. The two sections are clamped together with a plastic rivit, which shears in a collision. Tapping on the underside of the stearing wheel can also shear the plastic rivit and displace the upper shaft piece towards the driver.

That being said, I have used the "hammer" method as described above to remove my wheel many times without problems.


Dave
Dave

The steering column does not collapse from the top. The upper column section is secured in the upper column bearing assembly with a circlip under the bearing and another on the outside of the bearing. If it was designed to collapse in either direction the wheel could move up in the face of the driver in an accident. The column housing between the column mounting bolts and the bulkhead is built like chicken wire so it will collapse easily along with the shaft plastic bushing. The wheel and upper part of the column is supposed to stay in place in event of a collision. Anyone interested can see some photos on my Yahoo photos.
http://photos.yahoo.com/flash1929
Click on the, "MGB Steering Column upper bearings" album and look at photos 4,6 and 7.

As for getting steering wheels off I have used the method Paul Hunt describes and I have used a harmonic balancer puller on those wheels with bolt holes under the horn push. FWIW, Clifton
Clifton Gordon

Here's another way.
You have to be in your middle teens and a bit stupid.
Undo the steering wheel nut and heave away until you give up trying. Then decide to drive to your local MG garage to borrow a puller but don't bother to replace the nut as the steering wheel is obviously on pretty tightly anyway.
Drive a couple of miles and sure enough the steering wheel will come away - hopefully while you are on a straight bit of road. A very rapid emergency stop procedure will bring you to a halt with only two wheels on the pavement and no one around to witness your irresponsible behaviour and near disaster.
Wipe sweat from brow and try to work out if there are any lessons to be learned from this.
It worked for me.
Marc Gander

Damn, another gene pool cleansing operation failed ...
Paul Hunt

This thread was discussed between 28/02/2003 and 07/03/2003

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