Had to share - I had quite the battle to remove the steering wheel!

Back-story: I bought my first Vette recently (2000 FRC) from a forum member, and I'm doing lots of little things to massage it into what I want. Interior changes: fix the dim HVAC lights, a few LED’s, shift ****, steering wheel, seats, belts.

Steering wheel was high on the list, partly because the stock wheel is fugly, also because the horn membrane had failed and the car can’t pass inspection till it works. I figured as long as I’m in $70 for the membrane, let’s blow $250 on a wheel & adapter, do it right.

A nice new Momo wheel was kindly delivered by Amazon.


I rented the standard steering-wheel puller kit and got busy. I used directions in the FSM, this forum, and a vid or 2 on Youtube for pointers. Trim and airbag was scary but easy. It did not explode! That is good.

This dam’ wheel was plain stuck on there. The tool started pulling through the aluminum. I fought it for probably 4 hrs, repositioning, wedging the tool, etc with no luck.

I called over my next door neighbor, a kindly gent who has 20+yrs in aerospace as a machinist. This guy makes precision helicopter parts that cost 100k+ for a living. He knows how to put metal together and take it apart.

On his recommendation, the hacksaw came out. I sawed the perfectly good wheel apart, giving the outer rim to my 2yr old, who used it to ‘drive’ around the yard for the next few days.





The steel collar still had to come off the shaft. I could only get to about a quarter of it with my Dremel, the rest is sunk into the wheel-position sensor. Out came the jig saw, a fine metal blade, and after about an hour of careful mangling, the thing finally snapped off. Whoo!





Adapter fits on fine but was slightly larger Outside Diameter than the plastic collar is Inside Diameter. Dremel came out again with a sandpaper wheel on it, and I carefully removed as much of the ID of the plastic as possible.

Everything fits on, the wheel is fantastic, the plastic still looks good, and the horn works! You can just see a pic of the Hurst shift **** as well. Not the best picture, and the interior was still full of metal shavings & bits from the operation:



These 2 simple changes made a very nice change & improvement in the driving feel of the car.

Airbag light is on – Next is to figure out how to kill the light. I may also remove the passenger side bag, sensor, and install an on-board car PC with a screen on the dash for tunes & vids in the passenger side, we’ll see.

 

Seems to me, you removed an important safety feature (air bag) and hacked up the old wheel in order to put an even fuglier one in it's place.

 

I love the look of the wheel! How does it feel?

But I'm with 3boystoys... What about your air bag?

 

No air bag is OK by me:
1) I don't plan to hit anything
2) good seats and 4-point belts going in the car
3) see #1

It's a personal choice and I understand a lot of folks are not willing to do this. This is not a daily car, it's a toy driven on nice days and an occasional HPDE (the dangerous part of HPDE's is driving to and fro, not the event itself!). The daily cars keep the bags.

All my previous 'toy' cars were pre-airbag and also equipped with good seats and belts... A few generations of Americans somehow are dying of cancer instead of lack of airbags!

The wheel is a Momo Quark, about $175, just slightly smaller than the stock wheel, feels amazing. The adapter is around $75, so about $250 total. My picture does not do it justice - It's a good looking wheel

 

lol at a state that won't let you pass without a horn, but will without an airbag.

BTW... If you don't want the bag I'm cool with that.

 

I like it, I had the same idea.

 

Nice - they look identical but for color!

 

 

How do you plan on passing inspection now with the airbag ripped out? Isn't that an instant fail? Just curious.

 

I'm on the fence about that style steering wheel. I once test drove a C5 with that same wheel and it felt nice while driving and the grip was nice. I'm not sure if I could pull the trigger on it for monetary and safety reasons.

I respect the work and determination you put into this job to get the old one off and the one installed though. It looks nice.

 

Congrats on your success. Not sure why you had such a problem getting it off. I've taken a couple of these off with no major issues and plan on doing it again in a few weeks when I get to the interior part of my project. Maybe it's the puller I'm using.

 

I feel almost disappointed when I get in my Vette after driving my Colorado truck because the steering wheel in the truck is better...

It looks better then the giant Buick wheel GM threw into the car as an after thought, with that said can you see all your gauges with the smaller diameter wheel ok?

 

I can answer that

 

Nope
1. Horn
2. Windshield Wipers
3. Mirror
4. Steering
5. Seat Belts
6. Brakes (system) (Parking - beginning with 1960 models)
7. Tires
8. Wheel Assembly
9. Exhaust System
10. Exhaust Emission System (beginning with 1968 models)
11. Beam Indicator (beginning with 1948 models)
12. Tail Lamps (2); (1) if 1959 model or earlier
13. Stop Lamps (2); (1) if 1959 model or earlier
14. License Plate Lamp (1)
15. Rear Red Reflectors (2)
16. Turn Signal Lamps (beginning with 1960 models)
17. Head Lamps (2)
18. Motor, Serial, or Vehicle Identification Number
19. Gas caps on vehicles 2-24 model years old
20. Window Tint.

I might get hit with tint. Emissions is just OBDII check

 

Wow! In that case, this might go on my "Maybe One Day" Mod list! Looks awesome! I still worry slightly about not having an airbag with all the crazies out there on the road!

 

Hmmm. I was pretty sure I read that it is a Federal offence (US and Canada) to disable, remove or otherwise render inoperable any factory installed safety device unless you obtain an exemption (due to a handicap or other condition). Whether your local state inspection checks for it or not, is another story. Even if it weren't illegal per se, what about insurance liability issues? What if you ever decide to sell the car? Just saying.

Don't get me wrong. I like your steeting wheel and I would've loved to change mine. But, I am not keen on disabling Airbags that the car originally came with. You just never know when you may need it.

 

hey, in TX It's illegal to shoot a buffalo from the second story of a hotel. That might not stop some of us
The Feds have rules disallowing shops from removing or disabling airbags. But I do believe that as the owner, I can be as dumb as I like.
Heck, sometimes I even exceed the posted speed limit. Don't tell no one!!

 

I like the new steering wheel! I absolutely hate the factory steering wheel. It's been on my list of things to do for a while. It's too big, doesn't feel sporty at all. I drove the lady's Lexus the other day and absolutely love the steering wheel in it, wish I could put it in the Vette

 

FL we can do what we want with airbags as long as it's disclosed to a future buyer that the system in disabled/not working/removed. Believe it or not there are even companies out there that sell replacement steering wheel pads to replace a blown airbag so that it looks like a perfectly good steering wheel. All perfectly legal as long as you accept the fact that you have no air bag and inform a future buyer of this.

Gotta remember for the majority of us these cars are our toys. They are not what we load the family in and head on vacation. With that in mind is why we do so many non - safety mods to our cars like lowering, insane horsepower, removing cats etc...my last toy was a 71 pro street camaro no 5mph crash bumpers, no power steering, certainly no stinking airbags, no ABS, no traction control. Good lord now that I think about it what a rolling death trap who would want such a thing! Can you even imaging a c1,2, or 3 guy driving their cars without airbags!!!! They must be INSANE!!!!

 

Yeah speaking of the air bag "fillers"... My grandmother has one in her 2001 Malibu. It was salvaged when she bought it and whoever did the repair work cut that expense from putting in a new airbag and put in one of those.