This came today, ready to put my treat on that's been in a box for well over a year now. Car has been well behaved enough to justify it being fitted.
Couldn't find any of the bolts with a suitable thread. These were the closest.
However they were munging up the thread. So I rooted around my spares box and found two old bolts with the right thread.
Couldn't get the pointy spacer thing (forget the name) on too, so left it off.
Then used this.
Which was a mistake. All it did was bugger up the end as the lack of pointy spacer thing meant it pushed against the thread. Luckily minimal damage. However while tightening the thread in the hub let go. Luckily the hold has more than enough thread for the bolt to go in tightly still if the wheel is reused.
So next plan was to whack the back with a hammer. Not a lot happened.
Then I attacked it with a chissel in the middle while hoping it would split or at least . Of course it didn't.
Had a stop to think about it. Thought about getting the grinder out and just cutting a slit into the fecker then drive a wedge down to crack it into half.
However I really didn't want to damage the hub and especially didn't want to damage the column. Went into the garage for a root around.
Came out and did this. Yes that cheap aluminium casted plate is bending quite a bit.
After applying what seemed way too much force on a breaker bar ... everything all fell off.
Assessing the situation, I realised it finally broke free.
Built my new steering wheel. Realised the hub was pretty shit quality, so filed away on the centre to smoothen some of the splines out.
Put wheel on, tightened it up with my breaker bar as tight as I could. Then torqued up to 50lb/ft - still actually tightened up some more. Hopefully it's on the splines enough. Not sure it went down as far as the old wheel though.
Anyway its on.
Much nicer to hold. It's smaller, but I can get a better grip on it so it's easier to turn. Also my knees don't hit so much on the back of it either. The old one was a bit too big. Nearer 16 inches. While this I think is a 14 inch wheel.
Brake parts haven't come still. Not even shipped yet which is very annoying. Might take the wheels off though for a quick inspection and maybe a quick cleanup.
I did buy a Clutch master cylinder from Moss though. I've noticed that the fluid in that master is getting very dark. Also first, second and especially reverse can be hard to select at times. So I'm suspecting it could be the seals going. Slave and pipes I did the other year, so they should be alright still. It's not a metal can original so it must have been replaced at some point. But not by me - so likely at least a good 16+ years old and most of that sitting around.
Probably fit that this weekend. Hopefully should be a reasonably easy job too.
