R&R boat steering wheel.

[Fab1]

Hi guys i decided to straighten and lube my crooked steering wheel on my boat and thought it would help someone to do a little write up as seized/frozen steering wheels is quite common when the time comes to install a new helm etc.

The steering wheel is normally held on to the helms spindle shaft by a woodruff key,washer and nut.The spindle has a taper also that the steering slides onto and when you tighten the nylon nut the steering is gripping the shaft more and more the tighter you tighten the nut.(Think of a wedge,the more you hammer it into something the tighter it gets).Corrosion is a steerings worst enemy and anything you can do to prevent the steering wheel seizing onto the spindle will help you or your mechanic greatly in the future.

First remove the steering wheels centre cover by prying with a screwdriver-

Once removed you'll expose the spindle nut/washer that holds the steering to the spindle-

Using the appropriate socket on a ratchet undo the nylon nut until the nut is level with the spindle (Do not remove it completely)-

There's a few methods to remove a steering wheel dependant on how hard it is to remove normally due to corrosion but I always start with the nylon nut level with the spindle and grasping at 9 o,clock and 3 o,clock and while pulling towards yourself firmly giving the wheel a wiggle to free it from its tapered spindle until it pops free,at this stage if you have completely removed that nut like I told you not to you will be wearing the steering wheel as a face ornament.While your pulling it also helps to get a helper to tap the nut with a hammer to jolt the wheel free.

Here i have undone the nut level with the spindle and grasping the wheel ready for a good pull and wiggle.lol-

There's more than a 50%chance this method works but sometimes they're stuck on really good and you need more pulling power.This is when a 3 jaw puller comes in handy,you simply grab around the boss of the steering wheel preferably somewhere strong like behind a steering wheel spokes and screw the centre screw down onto the spindle and tighten with a socket/shifter etc-This method has a higher success rate than the pulling and wiggle method.

If neither of these 2 methods work you'll be resorting to air hammers and torches with a lot of bad language but generally these two methods will get the wheel off.

Here I have the wheel removed exposing the spindle, bezel and all the grease/anti-seize all over the spindle(Lubricants must be to expensive)-

Here you can see the woodruff key that prevents the steering from free spinning on the spindle combined with the taper in the spindle-

My steering wheel has 3 likely positions it can go on to the spindle as seen by the slots for the woodruff key-

I've applied anti-seize to the spindle an thread to make future removal easier-

Steering is now in the straight ahead position-

So is my outboard-

Thanks guys and I hope someone is helped by this.

Cheers.