I picked up a mid-60's GM tilt of some sort today at the U-pull-it with a useable, neat looking wheel on it - the type with the colored clear top and bottom and the opaque center bar is kind of translucent too. Too bad it's loaded with cracks.... Anyhow, the reason I'm not 100% sure this is a '66 Pontiac tilt is: It was a basic 4dr Catalina, and the original column (paint matched dash) was in the trunk. I only got it because someone with the loader speared this car through the windshield and mashed the dash down some, enough you couldn't really tell it's a tilt - it couldn't move. Had to jack up the dash to get the thing out of there. So I have it home here and put my Autozone ****py Made In China puller on it. Now I've had some wheels before that just would not come off, and the end of it is a little mashed up now, but it's worked on others since. This puller is a center bolt with a bar that two more bolts feed through and thread into the holes in the wheel center. This wheel, I can crank until I am bending the puller over and it will not pop off. I tapped on it with a hammer, sprayed WD40 on it (can't find my PB Blaster), tried everything short of heating the center with a propane torch. Can't find that either. (There is a tool gremlin that runs around here and takes things when I need them, then puts them back so I trip over them later on looking for the next thing it took and hid). Just for interest, there were a few goodies in the yard - '46? Chevy 1-ton or heavier. Really rotty, but had a stuck complete 216. Maybe one half of the hood is barely useable - the rest of it had bad rot in every panel. Neat taillights on it though. '53-'54 F600. Not out to pick on yet, but will be added eventually. Doors looked decent on it. Truck actually looks savable to me, but around here no one is buying much, so there it is. '50's Willys Jeepster station wagon - the boxy 2-door wagon. Rusty, had an OHV 6 in it. One door, hood and nose all useable. I ******ed the speedo and a taillight. There must be a '65-'66 Galaxie hardtop, too, because most of the trim, window garnish and the taillights were left on two wheelbarrows in the office. Probably someone stripped it, got up there with all this trim to find out they charge you by the inch for it and didn't want to pay for it. I didn't walk beyond the GM section to see if anything interesting was in the Mopar or Ford sections. That's the sad thing in this place. A lot of times, unless a guy can go himself and pull things, it's just not worth the effort to save for someone because they end up charging more than what anyone will pay - especially if you can get it on eBay cheaper. On the other hand, I can get a complete car tilt column, $30 including a $5 core charge, wheel is another $6. The right tilt colums will sell for as much as 5 times that on eBay. And if I find an S10 with a T5, I can get one for $100. I can bring in an old Hydramatic for a "core" and save $20, too. (I did see one of those, but it was a '93 with the electric speedo drive). It's goofy and it depends on which guy rings you up, too. I get all my tires out there, because I can get them mounted and ready for like $12-$15 on a steel rim and usually can find new or close to new if I look a little.
do what i do...my father calls me herman munster....keep manhandling it till SOMETHING breaks (and something WILL, whether it be the wheel/tool/etc.) haha pullers are NOT my friend. i once spent (today) a good few hours trying to get a bearing out from behind not realizing there was a circlip on the other side from where i was pounding on it. -Rob
Let the penetrant soak for a day or so. Also keep tension on the puller overnight, sometimes it will pop off, or at least help the penetrant work in. I have had some tough applications where the tapping with a hammer helped. Sounds like you did all these things, just leave the puller on and let it sit.
I had been using the kind of puller that you're describing on my 32 Ford. It didn't work. Bruce Lancaster met me at Carlisle, and showed me his heavy duty steering wheel puller. (A Wilson tool?) That worked. Try to borrow, buy or steal one that looks like this:
a small propane torch and a candle, heat it up, melt some candle, repeat, let cool some and hook up your puller and it should pop it. this has worked for me in the past.
Melt the wax so it flows into the splines, I ***ume? I didn't have time to mess with it today but I left the puller on all night. Thanks for the tips, guys -
This may not help you if the column is out of the car, but this method always worked for me, esp. when a puller couldn't get the wheel off. Sit in the driver seat. Put the nut on the column shaft, so it sits level with the top of shaft...there should be some space between the nut and the wheel, though. Pump up the brake pedal, put both feet on the pedal, with your knees pushing out on the bottom of the steering wheel. Grab the top of the wheel with your left hand, and pull out. Using your right hand, whack the nut with a big br*** hammer (br*** won't damage steel, a big steel hammer might, but I've used steel in a pinch, just be sure the nut is covering the threads of the shaft). Might have to do it 2 or 3 times, but it always works!
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