promethius

Well finished my steering wheel today! With the help of my wife holding the steering wheel, while I used a 1/2 torque wrench. After several attempts the torx bolt "finally" came loose. No threadlocker on the bolt!!!!
It is amazing that my air impact wrench could not budge it! Thank god for manual strength.......LOL.

Red C8 of Jax

If it had threadlocker on it like a lot of wheels do, you would have probably been unable to get if off. I decided to let the dealer swap mine and I'm glad I did. Usually with my projects, what can go wrong will go wrong.

familyman's C7

Oh, like me last night.

I went to replace my round wheel on my 2014 with a suede, d shape with yellow stitching.

I followed the advice of turning the wheel to the left all the way and started taking the wheel bolt off by hand with a breaker bar. It was coming off, but very slowly and stubbornly. I figured I would fire up my air compressor and use my impact to speed up the removal. I ended up stripping the torx recess on the bolt, not the driver bit. They must have used a crap load of thread locker.

So, to get the bolt out, I used a pair of vice grips and a section of pipe as leverage. I could only turn it about 1/6 of a turn at the time, and after a while, quite a while, I was able to get it out.

I ordered a replacement bolt from Cultrag last night, should have it in a few days. I must say the wheel looks good sitting on the steer column.

As for making sure the wheel gets installed properly on the shaft, I noticed the wheel has an arrow at 6 o'clock and the shaft has a dot at 6 o'clock to aide in proper installation.

Keith N

I replaced my C6Z steering wheel without any issues. After reading all of the challenges with the C7 install, I decided to have a friend at the dealership do the job for $40. I replaced my 2015 round wheel with an GM D Bottom wheel form Trunk Monkey.

halt00

First spring mod - carbon fiber bezel and carbon fiber center console to match the factory carbon fiber dash.

buckeye4

Same here. Great price from Trunk Monkey with 2 day shipping. My dealer charged 1/2 hour labor for the swap.

halt00

BTW, I was reading the GM service manuals, and it states to wait 2 minutes after disconnecting the battery (or there is an option to remove certain fuses).

markcz

If you don't mind... Which fuses?

I'd rather not disconnect the battery if possible

C7 x 2

I just pumped the brakes a few times after disconnecting the negative cable. That bleeds off any residual electrical charge. The main purpose is for the air bags but there are a lot more electrical connections in there than that so it would require pulling more than one fuse.

promethius

All u have to do is disconnect the negative side of the battery....it is two bolts! Recommendation: wait 20 mins after I disconnect! But I think disconnecting the battery is a heck of a lot easier then trying to figure out which fuse it is!

promethius

If this is the first time the air bag is being removed be aware in the manufacturing process the access holes to release the spring has a rubber coating over it on the inside. So when u push the screwdriver, Allen wrench, etc into the hole u r going to feel resistance. You have to break/pierce that coating and then you will feel the spring release.

halt00

I'll try to find it - the manuals are 4000 pages with a crappy index! The battery is actually one bolt, flip up the carpet in the right rear and take the foam out. Follow the tips in either case to discharge the battery with the brakes. Also another note, please roll down your windows and find the manual open door handle so you can open the doors. Disconnecting the battery may cause the car to prompt you to re-index your windows - super easy, car guides you.

7LitreC5

I just swapped my wheel out. My bolt was Loctited at the factory and did not want to come off. Blue Loctite can be softened with a heat gun I hit the bolt with a heat gun for about 30 seconds and it came right off.

Clc3251

Great thread, great forum. I just swapped the steering wheel on my new to me 2014 Vette in about 20 minutes thanks to this thread. I absolutely needed the 700ft/lbs impact wrench to loosen the nut. I also had to turn it up to 120lbs of air pressure and put the wrench on high to get it to budge. With the 700lb wrench this is an easy do it yourself project. I did have to reset the windows and top to get them to operate correctly. Also had to reprogram the mods4cars smartTOP module to get it to operate correctly as it somehow deactivated when the negative cable was disconnected from the battery. Thanks again for the instructions!

george vee

Thanks for this post

dashotgun

okay I got a cf painted trim piece and followed the directions disconnect batter check waited 10 minutes. Poked an allen wrench into the little holes on either side of the steering wheel nothing went right down to solid metal no clip after a while with poking at various angle I got the bottom of the air bag to pop up not amount of gentle pulling or poking on the left side of the hole in the steering wheel got the top to pop up. What am I doing wrong it seems like an easy task? I tried prying up the trim piece with out removing the air bag and it seems like the air bag is holding it down. I do not want the damn thing going off. Nor do I want to wreck anything. I will hold off until I get some more advise.

promethius

The first time those springs are released, they are really tight. The first time I did this, i felt the one side release and then when I went to the other side, the first side would pop back in. After several attempts I eventually used a nylon trim tool to hold the bag away from the spring, until I got both sides to release. Once both springs release it is easy to wiggle the air bag out. Don't be afraid the bag is not going to go off if you diconnected the battery!

promethius

if u are trying to remove the silver trim bezel....the air bag has to come out!

ZenicaPA

Looks good...nice write up too.

dashotgun

I know that hence the request on how to remove the airbag