Help with steering wheel removal

Is there a special tool needed to pull the steering wheel on a 1953 Buick Special 2dr ht? There are no holes to screw the bolts from my steering wheel pullers into the center section of the wheel, there are holes that look like a slot with a bigger hole on one end.

I'm confused. Yeah I know that is not all that unusual.

Help!!!!

BB

 

maybe a 3 jaw puller? or a slide hammer with finger attachments?
you got a pic old timer?

 

If I can't get them off, I usually take a big hammer to the shaft after the nut is off... it usually brakes them loose, but you better be a good aim!!!

 

hit the shaft with a hammer while pulling up with a puller.
You can let penetrating oil seap down in for a couple of days first.
Put 2 nuts on the top so you hit the nut that is screwed loose and supported by another nut.
That way you don't mess up the threads or squish out the end of the shaft.
Wil

 

Loosen the nut but don't take it all the way off. Brace you knees under the wheel so as to put as much pressure on it as possible. Take a brass punch and BMFH (big hammer) and knock the poop out of it. They usally pop off. (make sure you leave the nut on or you will get a broken nose and a couple of black eyes when it comes loose)

 

Amazing, I was down to pulling the wheel off my 53 Skylark yesterday. I seems like it would be a regular puller with the screws put in backwards and slid into the slots.
I do know one thing, that you shouldn't remove the nut completely but just loosen it, before you starting banging with a hammer, or you will mess up the threads.
Of course there is always the torch.

 

I am having the same problem trying to get the wheel off my '29 Chevy! Iv'e lubed the shaft with Gibbs, Left the nut on, but loose, Whacked the crap out of it and can't get her to budge. I can't use a heat wrench 'cause the hub is covered with thin aluminum.

 

Look at a tractor web site for how to pull these off, really.
What I have done is put my bearing splitter from my shop press underneath the steering wheel, then use a large puller around the wheel and pull on the splitter. That is about how they pull them on old Ford tractors.

 

That sounds like a keyhole slot to me with the head of the bolt going in the hole and a nut used at the puller end of the bolt.

 

Same deal on my o/t '66. Its sitting in the garage now with the puller tightened right down and sprayed with pb blaster, hoping that letting it sit like that for a week will do something, then I will go back and beat the living sh*t out of again. Wheel is plastic so heat is out of the question.

 

The old time method is to back the nut off untill the face is flush with the top of the threads on the shaft and then sit in the seat so you have your knees pressing up on the back side of the steering wheel fairly firmly and hit the shaft on the center with a hammer. It helps if you have a short piece of brass or something to take the direct blow from the hammer.

That might be a lot better suggestion in the long run but may not work on rigs with built in turn signal switches.

 

I've pulled a few of these Buick wheels and that's how I always do it, get three long bolts with heads small enough that you can fit them into those three slots (they usually end up being fairly small with round heads, hex head bolts usually don't work)

You slide the bolt heads into the three slots, then slide your steering wheel puller over those and put nuts and washers on at the puller end.

I've done it the hammer-hit way too, me in the car putting as much upward force on the wheel as I can and another guy hitting the center shaft with one solid crack, but only on a car that was on it's way to getting scrapped. I would NOT do that on a nice car, you risk cracking the plastic on the steering wheel from your leg pressure or mushrooming/galling the threads on the end of the column shaft.

 

Bob,
I checked my mid-50's Kent-Moore catalog and they show a 3-screw steering wheel puller (#421-3274 / J-3274) for Buicks, 1936-1956 (catalog was issued in early 1956). I removed the wheel in my '55 Special using the screws & puller in a conventional harmonic balancer / steering wheel puller kit I picked up at a swap meet.
-Bob

 

Here is the picture of what I have to work with.




BB

 

I found some 1/4 inch machine screw/bolts with a round head and they do fit in the slots. After supper I will see if this works.




BB

 

my Snap-On pulller was made back in the day for some of the early wheels that don't have theaded holes....will try and get a pic of the box and stuff it came in....

 

Thanks to all that offered help. The machine screws did the trick with a little help from a smoke wrench it came off and soon will be on the way to a new owner.

BB

 

you mean you are parting out that lovely rust free Buick you have advertised?

 

You had better reread my ad espically under the section "The Bad" and take a good look at the pics I posted. Ha Ha Ha

It is amazing however how well most stuff came apart, the doors have just surface rust as do the hood and trunk. There are loots of real good parts coming up for sale in the classifieds very soon.

BB