so now haw am I supposed to get the dam stearing wheel off

[Boston]

So my ignition switch dies on me right, Ok so its not the actual cylinder. Great. So I tear into my column and find that the two bolt holes are plugged with bolts that have sheered off. NO prayer in hell of getting a puller on it.

so whats the trick, do I cut it off and just replace it ? or is there some other way to get it off

Also
is there really no other way than to completely tear down the column in order to get this thing fixed. Seems like way more trouble that it should be, but then again it is a Found On Road Dead

Actually I found it in my buddy Jim's driveway dead but thats another story.

Deal is it seems like fixing this is torture. Gotta be a better way.

I've found a few threads on the column breakdown but nothing specifically on fixing the actuator to the switch from the keylock

 

[trapper]

what year model truck ?

 

[Boston]

its a 90 F250 diesel 7.3 4x4 Toboggan

 

[Dieselcrawler]

reinstall the center nut, and tap on the nut with a hammer while pulling evenly on the wheel. most of the time it will come off.

 

[MIDNIGHT RIDER]

Scribe a locating mark PRIOR to pulling the wheel; unlike just about everyone else, Ford did not incorporate a fat spline as a locater.

 

[Matrix37495]

I think they did on my '86... not for sure though...

 

[riotwarrior]

reinstall the center nut, and tap on the nut with a hammer while pulling evenly on the wheel. most of the time it will come off.

This works sometimes..one thing make sure that nut is on a ways down and you will have to pull on with your knees and bash that nut hard.

Or you can use a kewl device I use frequently in auto wrecking and it's really quite good.

You must be registered for see images

I have used these with exceptionally good results,

http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/improvement/4299511
This link says worked 1 in 4 tries, well I have definitely had much greater success than that. I get mine at Canadian Tire stores and mine have worked so well, I have taken the removed parts be it bolts or screws to my tool guy at Canadian Tire just so he can show prospective customers...HELL YA THEY WORK!

Scribe a locating mark PRIOR to pulling the wheel; unlike just about everyone else, Ford did not incorporate a fat spline as a locater.

Neither does Dodge or chev...that way you can center the wheel when doing an alignment if needed!

 

[fuelscrew]

i had the puller on mine and pulled the ethreads out of the holes, so i drilled the holes bigger and re taped them for bigger bolts havent had any problems since and i ve had the wheel off about ten times since

 

[gunz]

i run penetrating oil on the splines, wait a bit, put my feet against the floor and pull like hell. Havent found one I couldnt get off yet.

 

[redneckaggie]

ez out them or if you have access to a welder tack another bolt to the broken ones just make sure not to get stuff to hot and tarp the truck in order to not burn anything

 

[Boston]

well some joker broke off two bolts in those critical holes on this one so lets hope one of those methods works, No can ease them out, ones cross threaded and the others snapped off deep into the hole.

after that whats the deal with getting to that rod assembly and the actual switch. Anyone have a pictography of the tear down, sure would help

thanks folks
you guys are the manual
someone in here somewhere knows everything.

 

[redneckaggie]

Did mine not to long ago and its not hard just time consuming, dont remember what all i pulled off but I basically had it stripped all the way down to be able to get it all together.

 

[MIDNIGHT RIDER]

Neither does Dodge or chev...that way you can center the wheel when doing an alignment if needed!

The four Dodges and two Chevys sitting out back beg to differ, as they all have a key-spline on the wheel/column-shaft.


It is poor practice to re-align steering by re-splining the wheel, as it puts the steering-gear itself out of correct position and will cause a pull to left or right as the gear constantly seeks to re-center itself.


Steering-wheel re-centering is properly accomplished by adjusting the drag-link between the pitman-arm and steering-knuckle; thus, keeping the relationship of the wheel and gear-box in correct synchronization.

 

[OLDBULL8]

well some joker broke off two bolts in those critical holes on this one so lets hope one of those methods works, No can ease them out, ones cross threaded and the others snapped off deep into the hole.

after that whats the deal with getting to that rod assembly and the actual switch. Anyone have a pictography of the tear down, sure would help

thanks folks
you guys are the manual
someone in here somewhere knows everything.

Well 1st of all your not swearing at it hard enough, it's DAMN, not just dam.

Ok, now the bolts. Sears sell's a set (3) sizes of reverse drills. These work really good, most of the time the bolt/screw will back out when drilling. As far as the cross threaded one, about the only thing you can do is drill it out, start with a small drill and increase size until you reach the threads, then you can bend the bolt towards the centerand it should come out. Try to center punch a dot near as you can in the center before drilling. DAMN it worked.

Do you have the switch out? Sometimes just the little finger on the switch that operates the rod is broke off.

 

[The Warden]

FWIW my '84 does have a flat spot on the spindle; the wheel will only go on one way. I also have an '87-'91 steering wheel (came off Darrin's Cow Truck ) that has the same flat spot. IIRC the '80's E-series vans don't have a flat spot and the FSM actually says that the only way to adjust the "clearvision" on the E-vans is to remove and recenter the steering wheel (1984 Truck Shop Manual: Body, Chassis, Electrical; page 13-01-7).

As to the original question...as others have said, I would recommend giving easy-outs a try. Similar to this:

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Even with a cross-threaded bolt, you SHOULD be able to get the bolts out with these...if not, and if you can't force it out by hand, you might want to look into replacing the column. Depending on how bad the cross-threading is, you might want to consider replacing the steering wheel even if you can get it off intact.

Just my $.02...good luck!