How To Remove and Reinstall the Steering Wheel

So, I'm kind of going to start this in the middle. The story as to why I'm removing and reorienting my steering wheel and ultimately the why of this blog will come when I can think of something to write in a bit. 


Anyway, as it turns out, for some reason to be explained later, my steering wheel was turned about 20 degrees to the right when the wheels were straight. Obviously, this is not bad but it's definitely annoying and doesn't feel right. There are two ways of remedying a situation such as this: 1.) Jack up the car, get under it, remove the steering column's universal joint, and reinstall it correctly or 2.) Sit inside the car, remove the steering wheel, reorient it, and reinstall it. I don't have the time right now to pick option one, which is also the correct choice, so I went with option 2, the temporary fix.


After work today, I headed over to my local Autozone, which is conveniently just 10 minutes from home, and I picked up a steering wheel puller. If you've never seen one, they're quite simple. 

It's just a big clamp. It was 14 bucks and I'll probably return it. 

I got into my car and sat in front of the steering wheel. As a safety precaution, the battery should be unplugged. There are two T30 screws on other side of the wheel that hold the airbag housing to the wheel, making removal of the airbag extremely simple. Once the screws are loosened and the wiring harness is unplugged, the airbag can come out easily. I laid the airbag down flat on its back in the passenger footwell.

Now that the airbag is off, it was time to take off the steering wheel nut. This is the hard part. Unfortunately, I didn't have a breaker bar so I had to use my 3/8" ratchet, a 17 mm socket, and a lot of muscle. After a minute or two of struggling, the nut broke loose. I removed it and put it to the side.

Getting the actual steering wheel off is not easy without the help of the puller. Two long 13 mm hex head screws go into two holes on the wheel and the slots in the puller and the third 9/16" hex head screw is pressed against the shaft the steering is on. I began tightening the middle screw and suddenly, bang!, the steering wheel came loose. Then I undid the wiring harness for the horn and I was in business.

I repositioned the steering wheel but I couldn't get it absolutely straight. Since the steering wheel hub and the column shaft are splined, there isn't much change of getting the wheel on dead straight without getting a wheel alignment. Luckily, I was able to get it within 3 to 4 degrees from center.

So now, we go backwards! Reinstall the wiring harness for the horn, rethread the center nut, and bust out the torque wrench. The service manual says to tighten the nut to 44 lbf-ft, so I set my torque wrench and went at it. Two clicks later, the wheel was on tight. I picked up the airbag and I clipped the harnesses together. I placed the airbag in the wheel and tightened the two screws on both sides.

15 minutes later, I was done! I packed up my tools, started the car, pulled out of the Autozone parking lot, and headed home. Next week, I'll teach you how to cook a perfect filet mignon with potatoes au gratin and asparagus on your Subaru's exhaust manifold.