Ruined my steering column!

I'm a butcher.

Tonight I made brackets for my bucket seats in my 55.After joyously sitting in the drivers seat, I decided to change out my stock wheel for my sparkly new one. I grab the proper tool (steering wheel puller) and go to work;

After a few cranks the main bolt starts to twist sideways, so I back off and get another bite on it; then it does it again. I take the thing apart, and the small bolts into the wheel come out bent up, then I look at the end of the column, and it's mushroomed! I put two big pits in the end, and balooned the shaft end.

Tomorrow I will try to put the heat on it. If I get the wheel off, I'll cut the end of the shaft off and try to re-thread it.

Of course, I'm sure I will set my car on fire during the process.

 

holy **** man, good luck with it. keep the FD on standby! later, mike

 

Thats sounds like something I'd do.
Be careful it can only get uglier.
That ****s ! Good luck

 

Looks like you forgot to put the steering wheel nut back on the shaft to prevent the shaft from flaring out.

Not that I've ever done that one....

Don't apply heat and don't cut the end off.

Protect turn signal components and the like with masking tape, whatever before filing or grinding.

Knock the flared upper area back to the same size as the outer OD of the remaining threads.

Then run your die back over the threads.
Most times there are enough threads remaining to have the die match up to the old threads as it goes down.

If the flare was minimal you may be able to get away with minor filing and use a thread renewal/cleanup nut if you have one.
(Those are the little looks like a nut, but has threads sorta like a die sets you use on boogered up bolt threads and the like - usually comes in a set.)

Regardless, a new die isn't too costly and you can probably take care of things without resorting to hacksaws and the blue wrench....

 

i've always had good luck using a thread file. work from the good end toward the stripped part.

 

also in the "an ounce of prevention..." vein, get a good quality steering wheel puller, not a ****py one. Good ones have a bushign that fits on the end of the force screw and won't mushroom the steering shaft.

 

Man, I'm telling you guys....I was shown a way to get those old wheels off, without a puller, and even if the puller doesn't work! And I've done this MANY times, even after puller failure!
Sit on the front seat, loosen the nut on the steering wheel until it just comes to the top of the shaft. That is, leave it "on" the thickness of the nut itself, there should be about 1/4 to 1/2" of space between the nut and wheel.
Pump up the brake pedal, or use blocks if you don't have any brakes in it. Put your 2 feet on the pedal, with your thighs under the bottom of the wheel. Grab the top of the wheel with your left hand. Pull on the top of the wheel, while pushing the bottom up with your legs. Smack the wheel nut with a big br*** hammer. It should break loose in 3 or 4 shots. The pressure and vibration of the hammer shocks loosen even very stubborn wheels. I have not had this method fail! The nut protects the threads of the shaft, and also keeps you from giving yourself a concussion when the wheel breaks loose!

 

I'll try to clean the threads tonight. I really waffled the end of this thing. I'll take a pic later. I need to stop solving my problems with brute force. The last couple I have done popped off so easy I didn't think to bother with the nut replacement.

I'll try to borrow a real puller from my buddy with the $100k Snap-on collection.

I have done the hands-and-knees steering wheel removal before. Years ago when my toolkit was nothing but a hammer and roll of duct tape. I'll give it a shot after cleaning the threads.

I'm actually surprised nobody backed me up on my torch plan.

 

I'm not!

 

Strikes me as being tough on steering box bearings and the like.

Sometimes though . . . a guys gotta do . . . well, you know....

 

bearings? we don't need no stinkin bearings!!!

 

done it myself a few times too

 

LOL!

As soon as I saw the end of the column screwed up, I immediately had a vision of my dash on fire. I thought "I can see my future, and it is firey!"

I promise, I won't use the torch

 

a tad bit off topic but funny/scary none the less.

when you do finally get the thing off and the new one on,
remember to put the steering nut back on.
cause you might decide to take her for a little test spin
and of course you forgot to put the nut back since you'd been fooling with the turn signals alot
and just got tired of taking the nut on and off.
and of course you decide to punch it a little, just to bark the tires you know.
then for some 'god knows why' reason, the throttle sticks open
and you clamp down on the binders for all your worth trying to not ram into that brand new mini-van parked too close to your driveway.

and walla! your staring up at the roof with the steering wheel in your hand
did i forget to mention you we're sitting on milk crate at the time and
of course still headed for the mini-van
luckyly, you old dog, there was time to reach up and shut the ignition off.

pretty silly dumb mistake, and one that required checking to see if i had soiled myself.

i had putted the car around a few times and the wheel felt fine.
but when i yanked up on it hard by pushing on the brakes she let go in a shot.

gary

 

you have the makings of a true hamber, Gary.

 

I'll vouch for this one. It seems to always work. It is probably not good for the column if you are repeatedly removing a wheel, but I dont think it hurts any thing on the first offence.

 

There are several bits of solution...you may need more than one...
1. Thread file--special file (oft a set of two to cover most common threads), square file with teeth of dif pitches on each side, pilots in the good threads, files the bad ones...not really usable if threads badly compressed.
2. Special tool, one I've got in N NJ IF it has threads of the right pitch, still available from Snap On but expensive...special for commonly destroyed axle and steering threads: It's basically a row of dies in common sizes for things wrecked by pullers, like Ford axle ends. The dies are split between hinged metal blocks, so you open the thing, close and clamp it around the shaft, and twist dies UPWARD to reform things. Not only cuts but helps roll metal back home. You can put it on loose, unclamped, at first if necessary, and squeezit together by hand until you reduce the prob enough to close it. PM me for phone #, I'm in NJ. What threads here??
3. Special split die--industrial supply, I think "Little Giant" name, might be wrong on that...die made in 2 pieces, either improvise holding it or buy the $pecial adjustable stock handle.
4. Buy a regular die, preferably pattern with 4 lobes of hole. Put die in vise half way, whack it into 2 pieces with hammer blow, useit as a split die.

You'll never use a puller without a nut again!

 

Thanks Bruce! If all fails I'll take a ride up to you. This weekend I'm fixing the tail lights, bolting on a new carb, new wheels, and giving the old girl a chance to stretch her legs.

Speaking of which, what am I still doing at the office? I'm going home to wrench and drink beer.

Happy St. Patty's day!

 

there's one I never thought of,

bet you could put it back together with a small hose clamp and turn it with channel locks...

 

Yup.

 

And everything you butcher during removal on an old Ford is 5/8-18...

 

Something we do at work regularly..... for boogered threads.... take a nut (appropriate size) and file 4 slots across the threads.... I use a small triangle file, and file clean through the threads.It works to chase the old threads in a pinch. You have to get em close first, but its like a poor boy tap.

 

Leme know if you can salvage it or not, I got a GM shaft here that could be made to work in your colum.

 

If all this good info doesn't get the job done, do your self a huge favor and pull the whole column before you get carried away. Better to trash just the column on the work bench then destroy the rest of the car...Then if everything else fails you can just pick up another column from a junk yard and put it in your car. Any kind of sparks inside a car with any interior stands a good chance of you getting to meeting your local firemen. My experance tells me once a fire starts inside of a car, you have about 20-30 seconds to get the fire out to save the car. If that fire inside a car burns for 1 minute, it will destroy the car and everything within 10 feet of the car, including your garage, house, and other cars. Don't ask how I know these things....
Gene

 

Use a piece of round solid aluminum. Br*** can **** up steel. Ive dona a bunch this way also ans ive even got a puller Sometimes you get lazy and dont wanna look for it.
Dave