Date:         Thu, 14 Dec 1995 09:04:45 -0600 (CST)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         "Joseph F. Fournier II" <jfourni@comp.uark.edu>
Subject:      Re: 71 Bus: Lola needs her steering wheel removed, please help!

Well, that's one way, but I never had any luck getting the steering wheel
to move without a puller. Not having the appropriate puller, I used what I
had and jerry-rigged. What I did was feed two bolts through the holes in
the steering wheel (you'll see them when you take the horn cover off). 

I have a puller that's in three parts and I was able to use the bolts as 
the arms of the puller. You might look at a harmonic balance puller as a 
substitute.

This arrangement is a little off center, but with the steering wheel nut
backed out to the top of the steering column, I was able to use this
make-shift puller to get things started. The trick for me was to make sure
the nut was at the top of the steering column; without it, I couldn't get
a straight pull...and the wheel wouldn't budge. 

Hope this helps. 8) Joe


On Thu, 14 Dec 1995, David L Finet wrote:

>  
> 	I'm afaid that I'll get a bunch of "NO, NOT THAT WAY" type 
> rebuttals to this but here goes (it worked for me)...
> 	I had to replace the turn signal on my '71 this fall, and my 
> mechanic buddy was helping me out.  When it came time to pull the 
> steering wheel, he grabbed a rubber mallet and gave a few medium sized 
> taps on the underside of the wheel as close to the post as possible.  As 
> soon as it started to move, he was able to rock it off. That in and of 
> itself made me flinch when I saw it, I was sure that the wheel was about 
> to be blasted to smithereens... then to get to the wiring, he loosened 
> the bolts on the little plate that goes from under the dash and holds the 
> post tight up against the dash and just ***bent it down towards the nose***.
> I about fainted at the sight of my beloved bus getting handled like 
> that.  Unfortunately it is about the only way to get to the wiring 
> without taking the bracket off which in turn is about impossible because 
> the bolts up by the nose are tough to get to.  When we were done, he 
> simply bent the bracket back and you can't even tell that it was ever 
> bent down.  
> 	BTW, be careful to get the connection to the horn at the base of 
> the steering post back together (a good time to clean the connection) and 
> working before you put everything back together if you go with this 
> method.  
> 	 
> 
> 

----------------------------------------------------------
Joseph F. Fournier II <jfourni@comp.uark.edu> 501.575.7353
<a href="http://comp.uark.edu/~jfourni/"> Joe Fournier</a>
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| "If a thing worth having is worth working for, my bus  |
|  must be worth it's weight in gold."  -- me    \/      |
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