Removing the Steering Wheel Stalks and Ignition?

[GOONIESnvrSAYdie 10]

Braking a Corrado for donor parts, taken the dash and wiring loom out for my Caddy Mk1 project. Stuck at how to remove the steering wheel stalks and ignition from the steering coloum. I could only see one alen key screw, which I removed and made no difference, still totally stuck haha.

 

Any tips on removal?

 

Cheers

[Nathan Harvey 10]

I removed all my stalks and had to drill out the ignition barrel . Once you've taken off the steering wheel and the top and bottom covers there should be 4 bolt heads visible remove these disconnect the electrical plugs and the stalks should come off . Ill have a look for my thread I posted with pics and link it if that helps

[Stonejag 10]

1) Centralise steering!

2) Remove horn cover from steering wheel (hook fingers under the bottom bit and pull)

3) Undo 24mm nut in centre of steering wheel and remove it along with the washer

4) Remove steering wheel

5) Undo 3x screws in lower plastic cowl (outer two may be missing as they always break) and unclip by gently pulling downwards. Careful, if it's a late one it'll have a huge metal plate glued into the plastic bit...

6) Undo 3x long black Torx-head screws holding stalks to the steering lock - they're at 11'o'clock, 1'o'clock and 7'o'clock' as you look at the steering column.

7) Pull gently on the front half of the stalk assembly (hazard light switch + left stalk) to remove - it should just slide free of its harness without you having to unclip anything

8 ) Remove the other half (right-hand stalk) by pulling gently - this is usually a pain as the harness will be clipped/cable-tied everywhere and may be tangled into the immobiliser ring (black plastic circle with trailing cable around ignition switch). If you can get enough slack, remove the immobiliser ring first, it'll give you more room. There should be 2-3 plugs to disconnect, they may be clipped onto a metal plate on the steering column outer tube.

 

Make sure you don't undo the silver Torx (not Allen) screw at around 8'o'clock on the hazard switch/indicator stalk, that's what keeps the stalk's spring from peeling the case open :) If you have, gently put it back...otherwise you'll smash the stalk casing the first (or second...or third...) time you try and turn the high beams on.

 

Don't remove the column until you get the stalks off, it'll make your life more awkward. Once you have the stalks off, you can drop the column.

 

1) "Undo the four bolts". The front two bolts are standard cap head bolts but the back two are shear bolts - they're designed such that the heads snap off when tightened. This is supposed to be a security measure but really it just makes your life harder if you ever need to remove the column again - I just put Allen-head bolts in all of them :) They don't shear until they're at the carefully calibrated torque of 'incredibly bloody tight' so you'll find it much easier to grind what's left of the head off than to get a screw extractor into them. My screw extractor got the first one out and then snapped off in the second one, which then made it much harder to grind down as there was a huge lump of hardened tool steel jammed into the middle of it. They're only mild steel so grind easily - make sure you shield the harnesses / carpets from flying sparks as they'll be worth less if you set them on fire :)

 

2) The column will hinge down on the rear pivot once the top four bolts are out. Unhook the column from the pivot, then undo the 13mm pinch bolt at the base of the column and it'll slide out of the universal joint when you pull it. Don't loose the spring!

 

Now you have the column out, you can work on the ignition barrel. Drill a 1-3mm hole in the steering lock housing like this:

 

(in line with the key, 12mm back)

 

You may be in luck and find it's already been drilled - if not just go slowly and carefully and you'll be fine. You can then push down the sprung locking lever that's part of the ignition barrel using something pointy that fits in the hole (I used the shaft of a 1mm drill bit) and pull forward on the barrel using the key. Once it's moved the first half-inch it'll come out with some careful wiggling. You can then carefully remove the old ignition switch using a small screwdriver (easier if you heat the middle to cherry-red with a gas torch and then bend a 90º angle in it), throw it away and put a new one that isn't quite so likely to fail in instead. Job done!

 

Stone

Edited October 29, 2012 by Stonejag

[ben_wooduk 0]

Cracking how to! I'll pinch this to remove the steering column from our breaker :)

[GOONIESnvrSAYdie 10]

I removed all my stalks and had to drill out the ignition barrel . Once you've taken off the steering wheel and the top and bottom covers there should be 4 bolt heads visible remove these disconnect the electrical plugs and the stalks should come off . Ill have a look for my thread I posted with pics and link it if that helps

 

That would be a great help, thanks mate :)

 

---------- Post added at 9:33 AM ---------- Previous post was at 9:32 AM ----------

 

Brilliant, thank's a lot for this pal, really in depth and useful.

[Nathan Harvey 10]

http://the-corrado.net/showthread.php?76327-Ignition-Barrel-Advice

 

sum pics on this thread mate.

[Roger Blassberg 0]

Have you got the ignition key? If you have, just release the steering lock, undo the clamp and slide the whole assembly off....................

 

Best wishes

 

RB

[Stonejag 10]

undo the clamp

The one that's supposed to be held on with a third shear bolt? ;)

 

The steering lock's extremely hard to remove from the inner column on the fixed column, not sure about the adjustable one though. I'll have a look when I get home but it may well be easier that way!