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You know the Tooth Fairy, right?
Leaves you a quarter in exchange for your lost tooth.
Well, there is also the Mod Fairy, leaves you cool car parts in exchange for your hard earned dollars.
The Mod Fairy drives many different vans, some brown, some white, some that are blue and are electric powered.
Well, the Mod Fairy came by in that big blue electric van and dropped off my car's first mod, well...technically not the first, the Borla exhaust is actually first, but I didn't put that on, came with the car, so it doesn't count in my mind.
What did the Mod Fairy bring me?
A brand new TEFSEEL carbon fiber dipped Steering wheel with perforated leather grips, red stripe and stitching, looks fantastic!
Amazon had these with a $30 off coupon, making it less than $200, so I jumped on that, still at that same deal if anyone else wants one.
Now to get the GM steering wheel puller and get it installed.
Picked up a great deal on the puller tool.
I remembered that Autozone has a tool lending program, you basically buy the tool then when you take it back after using it they give you all your money back, so I stopped in to see if they had a steering wheel puller, especially one with the special GM adapters, and sure enough they had one. Pretty decent looking puller set in a nice hard case. $47.63 which I will get back.
I want to do this job soon, I would like to hear how it goes for you. You decided to keep your airbag, I should do the same. But I do have a harness system...
Well, I couldn't stand to wait...
I had the new wheel, had the tools lined up, I couldn't stand to wait...
INSTALL DONE!!!
Took a little over an hour with all the fooling around with the video shoot while also doing the R&R.
As to getting the old wheel off, I was leary of that wheel puller, but I was careful, went slow, held the head of the ratchet to keep the puller straight, and I turned the screw slowly, bit by bit, and suddenly, just like you've seen in other videos, POP! And suddenly it was loose, turned out to not be a big deal.
Just have to be careful, make sure you have the puller adapters engaged in the wheel correctly, make sure you keep the puller straight, turn slowly while supporting it, and it will work.
Here's a crappy pic, I did video of the whole R&R, but will need a lot of editing to get it like I want it, so will be a while.
Need to do some clean up, will get some better pics, maybe tomorrow, skeeters were chewing on me, I had enough and gave up.
Last edited by Ltngdrvr; Jun 10, 2025 at 01:18 AM.
Picked up a great deal on the puller tool.
I remembered that Autozone has a tool lending program, you basically buy the tool then when you take it back after using it they give you all your money back, so I stopped in to see if they had a steering wheel puller, especially one with the special GM adapters, and sure enough they had one. Pretty decent looking puller set in a nice hard case. $47.63 which I will get back.
I’ve seen people have lots of issues and I’ll give you a tip on not becoming one of them.
When you pull the wheel make sure you have the puller straight inline with the shaft. When it starts to move and side load the shaft in a little loosen and realign. The wheel and shaft are already interference fit and if your not pulling dead straight it will bind. It doesn’t hurt to spray a little Kroil oil 30 min before you pull.
The biggest problem is using the wrong puller. That one looks like it should work.
You may run into an issue where the hooks don’t clear the holes you need to pull from due to width. If that’s the case stop and go to O’Reillys and use their free to borrow kit. It should work if it’s the same at each store
Either that or grind the hooks. If you grind do not let them get hot. You will need to keep dipping them in water so they don’t lose their heat treatment. An alternative is to clearance the holes in the factory wheel.
I’ve seen people have lots of issues and I’ll give you a tip on not becoming one of them.
When you pull the wheel make sure you have the puller straight inline with the shaft. When it starts to move and side load the shaft in a little loosen and realign. The wheel and shaft are already interference fit and if your not pulling dead straight it will bind. It doesn’t hurt to spray a little Kroil oil 30 min before you pull.
The biggest problem is using the wrong puller. That one looks like it should work.
You may run into an issue where the hooks don’t clear the holes you need to pull from due to width. If that’s the case stop and go to O’Reillys and use their free to borrow kit. It should work if it’s the same at each store
Either that or grind the hooks. If you grind do not let them get hot. You will need to keep dipping them in water so they don’t lose their heat treatment. An alternative is to clearance the holes in the factory wheel.
That puller kit did work just fine, obviously, since I got the new wheel installed!
The hook adapters were a little tight going through the holes, but just barely.
I think part of what leads to issues with them is the plastic ring of the clock spring is right up against the back of the wheel hub, so you have to push them in against it, and it helps to have a open end wrench to turn the hooks into the holes in the proper orientation, can be a little too much to do by hand only.
Then as you tighten the puller down to make the pull, you have to hold it up so that when you crank on the threaded shaft, it doesn't get pulled off center.
All of this is shown in the video I am putting together.
I had a heck of a time keeping the puller centered, so I got me one of these. Threaded it over the shaft and it "trapped" the puller shaft so no more walking off center.
That puller kit did work just fine, obviously, since I got the new wheel installed!
The hook adapters were a little tight going through the holes, but just barely.
I think part of what leads to issues with them is the plastic ring of the clock spring is right up against the back of the wheel hub, so you have to push them in against it, and it helps to have a open end wrench to turn the hooks into the holes in the proper orientation, can be a little too much to do by hand only.
Then as you tighten the puller down to make the pull, you have to hold it up so that when you crank on the threaded shaft, it doesn't get pulled off center.
All of this is shown in the video I am putting together.
I should’ve paid more attention. I thought we would just got in and that was someone else.
I wish they sold those with a smaller diameter, but it’s definitely better than factory
Install video is in the process of uploading, my slow internet upload speed is making it take all day, been going for a couple of hours and still at only 60%.
Hell of a thing that a 27 minute long video takes so long to upload...
Okay, finally got the video loaded, took TWO TRIES!!!
What a PITA!!!
So, the video was made in nearly real time, it is 27 minutes long, pretty much covers it in detail, although I had the car and tools prepped beforehand for the install.
First Mod...
