Steering wheel allen bolts

That sucks, you may have to drill them out if all else fails...

Use a very good, hardened allen tool, my help a bit..

Greg

 

When you start to do some serious operation on the wheel be sure to protect the wheel with blue painter's tape or something to keep errant tool ends from marring the wheel.

I would try a nice hard proper-sized allen bit. When you have used that to either remove or destroy the bolts I would start with left-hand drill bits. At wost at some pint you will have removed the wheel and have little studs to remove. Usually these fasteners are locked to the steering wheel by the surface area of the countersink so if you dill the heads off, the shank just screws out.

I consider the screws expendible. I would kill them before heating up the wheel.

 

Soack the bolts in WD40 over night, from both sides.

 

also might try one of those impact type drivers and use the socket based allen key as the tapping may help shock it loose.

it seems you have tried the rachet based example (which i use often when a regular allen key "L" wrench wont work).

so maybe a impact type piece might help.

also maybe a little bit of sand or grit in the opening will help the bit "fit" a little better?


good luck.


doug

 

I would try a good soak in WD40 first, but a couple of other ideas to keep, or dismiss as you see fit.

1) I wonder if you have a little bit of electrolytic corrosion? Steel bolts into an alloy hub, and years of atmospheric moisture... leading to a bit of corrosion grip. If the WD 40 doesn't work try a mild acid, say COCA COLA for a few days. Or somewhat stronger is WONDER WHEELS (aka. Phosphoric acid) (protect skin and eyes with this stuff!). Obviously you'd have to remove the hub from the car, but this should break down the oxide a bit.

2) with tight screws it is sometime better to first try to break the grip by tightening them a touch. By doing this if any damage is done to the screw it is on the tightening faces, not release faces.

3) heat might work, but suggest imersing the alloy hub in boiling water rather than using fire! Alloy aneals at quite a low temperature and a blow torch is not necessarily the way to go. Using boiling water will give an even 100oC to the alloy if left in the pan for a while. You also might get to keep the black crackle paint?

4) if you have to drill then and can't remove the shafts of the bolts it is easy enough to turn the wheel a number of splines and drill and tap a new set of bolt holes.


It is never easy, this is a hub boss I ended up making from scratch for a Lotus. Again wrong studs and wrong reach problems with the new Nardi wheel.

David
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Brian is quite right it's the tapper of the countersink capscrew that's holding so tight !! Very carefully use a pin punch to shock them loose . First make a center punch hole near , but not to close to the edge of the head ( closer to the edge you are , the better the turning leaverage ). Then punch in the direction of undoing the screw . Very carefully !!

 

I had to drill out a few of mine. Once the heads were off and the wheel removed the remaining shafts unscrewed fairly easily using a vice-grips.

 

+1 on the expendable bolts. They are readily available at a good hardware store. Don't waste your time trying to remove and save $5 worth of bolts. Get a drill driven screw extractor and you can pop them all out in less than a minute. Toss them in the trash and install your new wheel w/ new bolts.

 

They are in there with Blue Locktite, a thread locking material.....

Not sure what is recommended to loosen them.....

I would order a new set of bolts to do this job....

A saw a guy drive into a concours once and swap to a brand new wheel in search of a Platinum...he got it, but the bolts are supposed to be Loctited for safety..

 

Glad to help.........if you buy the bolts from Ferrari, it's visible on the threads.....

Not the sort of thing you want rattling off in your hands, after all.....LOL!

 

I used a hardened allen bit in a drill/driver...the tourque snapped them loose...after a good soaking with PB Blaster. I think I had to drill out one

 

There was no Locktite on mine, but perhaps I wasn't the first one to think they were expendible...

 

I remember a post in the old f-chat that described heating the screws with a soldering iron, then tap to break the loctite and you should be good to go.

I haven't tried it myself, so ymmv.

Dom

 

Those work really well. Very inexpensive at a place like Harbor Freight Tools.

 

I'll remember this thread when I get a new wheel.

The original does look to have been removed at some point, as there's some small visual evidence of allen-wrench torque on the bolts.

 

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showpost.php?p=136247322&postcount=177

 

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John from a mates personal experience,

The 308 GTB/Si wheel was a Nardi not a Momo. The boss to fit the Nardi wheel is different to the Momo boss. To fit the Momo wheel you will need a Momo boss!

Cheers

Pete

 

care and patience are the order of the day here.
if indeed, blue loctite was used on the threads, heat is not necessary to break loose.

you might try a crc product called "freeze". this will shrink the bolt and allow extraction.

also, buy the best allen key you can find. dip the tip in valve grinding compound. this
will increase the gripping ability of the key when placed in the allen socket.

the combination of "freeze" and valve grinding compound should break the fasteners loose.

i found this technique worked very well when replacing the door strike bolts.