Just the Tip

EDITOR NOTE: This is a reprint of a series entitled Just the Tip authored by Thomas Brobst. His ‘make-do-with-what-you-got’ and ingenuity makes for interesting reading and maybe help a poor soul out of a perplexing repair. See if you agree with me this is fun reading.

Just the Tip
Tip #10

‘Allo, ‘allo! all my club mates! Here are again at Just the Tip sharing time-saving and innovative (read: hacking!) tips for the home and garage. Well, so far mostly garage. The home ones will come when I run out of garage tips. By the way, it was great having the club over to see my garage and workshop last Saturday on the Garage Tour 2017. It’s always fun to see the inner sanctums of our partners in crime. Selma and I had a great time. Many thanks to Alan and Elaine Hess for putting together such a successful tour.

Add some rubber tubing to the cut PVC ...add a compression band to hold the gig together.

So, let’s get started, shall we? This tip has to do with removing your steering wheel. I don’t know if this will apply to newer models, like MGB or TR6, but it works with my MGA and probably with earlier MG’s and other LBCs that have banjo style steering wheels.

The problem I had is that even after one removes the large nut that holds the wheel to the splined steering column shaft the wheel is usually stuck fast and has to be pulled off. Hmmm, that must be why they sell steering wheel pullers...Hah! Now, it’s been awhile since I last did this. I have a steering wheel puller kit but I didn’t use it… not sure why. Although it’s not impossible that I forgot I had it, it is unlikely. I can only imagine that my stock MG factory steering wheel was incompatible with the puller. Being the original banjo type steering wheel there was no way I was going yank on the rim or beat on the hub or put a puller on the spokes to get this thing off.

So….hmmm, this harkens back to my last installment about making bespoke tools…..I hacked together a custom puller! It’s made from a piece of PVC pipe cut in half (OMG I never should have bought that band saw!), a couple short lengths of fuel line that I slit length-wise and a radiator hose clamp. See the pics. You fit the fuel line along one edge of each of the PVC pipe halves. This protects the hub of the steering wheel from being scratched. Next fit the halves together around the steering column behind the steering wheel and clamp them together with the hose clamp….nice and tight.

Now, center this franken-pipe on the back of the steering wheel hub, grab that big gear puller and fit the arms on the back end of the pipe. Naturally, the tip of the puller lead screw goes into the end of the steering column. Make sure you don’t bugger the threads. I usually install the nut partially on the shaft to protect the threads but that requires two applications, first with the nut on… because obviously I can’t get the wheel all the way off with the nut on...Duh!.....then remove the nut and do it again to get the wheel all the way off.

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