Heat failed too :(
Apart from the cost of a new wheel is there a particular reason I should avoid cutting the old one off?
I suspect someone has used Loctite on it at some time and it just isn't going to come off without getting brutal. Why do you need to take it off anyway?
Yeah, I suspect some muppet has put red loctite on it :( It's quite possible the wheel isn't the original because it has numbers written on it in black pen which might have been a breaker's stock number or ebay ID.
I need to replace the clockspring so that the horn, cruise and airbag work again. I'm not sure if clockpring is the UK term (it being a US vehicle) but it's the box of tricks that connects from the vehicle chassis to the steering wheel and allows for rotation of the wheel. The part was £80 and it should have been a painless DIY if the puller had done the trick :(
Rotary coupler you mean.......
Yes, it may seem to be a pretty insignificant part but airbag fault and no horn are both MoT failures so it is fairly important (or you take the bulb out of the SRS warning lamp and wire a big pushbutton on the dash to operate the horn....).
I know them as clocksprings too. Got to be careful fitting them as apparently once you've unleashed it to unwind there's no winding it back, which is why there's little point getting one from a scrapyard. A bit along the lines of fixing a petrol lawnmower's self returning pull start cable setup except there's no access.
Well, I've just managed to get one from a breaker (ACD Lancashire) which will be arriving tomorrow. The garage will now be chopping the old one off... It's a bit of a shame but as Richards said, I can't be driving around with an MOT failure.
I thought a decent MOT tester should be expecting the lights to come on and go off too these days too - to try and get around the old tape/lamp out trick. I'd personally prefer my airbag to have some chance of operating if I am ever unfortunate enough to need it anyway.
They'll still get it wrong with a P38 though and the ABS lamp. My favourite has been our red one being passed just fine on the Monday, and the same garage failing my silver one on the Wednesday.
Lpgc wrote:
I know them as clocksprings too. Got to be careful fitting them as apparently once you've unleashed it to unwind there's no winding it back, which is why there's little point getting one from a scrapyard. A bit along the lines of fixing a petrol lawnmower's self returning pull start cable setup except there's no access.
You can make them usable again after they fully unwind. You need to fully wind it tight, count how many turns it takes to fully unwind it then wind it tight again. From there you can unwind it to it's halfway point as you know how many turns it is between fully wound and unwound. You need to make sure the clockspring winding is centralised so you can be sure it has enough slack in both directions when turning the steering wheel.
If you install it with it wound too tight you end up overtightening it and snapping the wires when turning the steering wheel.
Had to do this when I was fitting cruise control to my old ST170 as the additional steering wheel buttons needed a different clockspring.
I had the same with the ABS lamp. A new tester at my local station drove it very slowly onto the ramp then came out and told me he couldn't test it as the ABS lamp was on. Before I had chance to say anything, his boss told him to drive it around the yard and not to drive like a girl in future.
LOL, gotta love all the foibles :)