teddyca

Bought a wheel last week and decided to take on the task last night. Nothing special here. Remove bag, disconnect harness, remove T50 bolt. Well here lies the problem. I have removed my fair share of steering wheels and knew like all others this would require TONS of power, so I called on my 18V Makita 1/2" impact. I have seen this thing snap grade 8 bolts so I knew I had the power. Needless to say it struggled. What's weird is I would be impacting it for say 5 seconds and it would make a 1/4 turn. Initially I figured GM used some crazy locktite so I kept going. Then it happened, the forged T50 socket I just bought from Harbor freight (I mention this because HF tools are not the best) snapped. Luckily I was able to get the bit out of the T50 bolt but even the teeth on the bolt is starting to show wear. This sucks. I am about half way there but what does this bolt have left in it? And why in the world is it such a dirty wh@re. In all my years once you get the initial break it should come right off.

UPDATE--- So instead of updating the bottom of this thread I figured I would put the details here for all. After going through 2 impact T50 adapters by snapping them with my Makita I decided to use everyones method of a buddy and a breaker bar. While we noticed we were successful it was time consuming so I put the impact back on the bolt because I was now seeing movement and figured I would be go. BAM there goes the second socket. Fortunately my buddy brought 2 T50 bits. We used the second one and took our times with the breaker. The bolt is now off and time to swap. I hope my mess helps others. Use a breaker and take your time.

AKKutz

Get a better bit and try a heat gun on the bolt. I used heat and mine broke free without the impact.

TRANS DAMM

I took the roof off and used a long breaker bar. Impact gun did nothing for me. One turn with the breaker bar and it was cake. Prob didn't have to take the roof off but it just gave me more room

TRANS DAMM

I took the roof off and used a long breaker bar. Impact gun did nothing for me. One turn with the breaker bar and it was cake. Prob didn't have to take the roof off but it just gave me more room

robert miller

I had the same problem on mine buddy. But ended up with a big breaker bar. GM don't want it to come loose at all. Robert

teddyca

Thanks guys for the replies but I can't imagine taking heat to that bowl with all those Electronics surrounding it. I don't have a problem using a big breaker bar but my concern is breaking the actual locked in the column from the pressure in any case appreciate the feedback keep in mind this bolt has already made a handful it turns and it is still sticking never seen this before

TRANS DAMM

I had My buddy sitting in the driver seat holding the wheel straight

mdiiulio

This, held the wheel with my legs...but the help of a friend would make it much easier.

panerainovice

I've heard of a few tricks to get this bolt out. Turn your steering wheel all the way to the left. You can heat up the bolt a little with a heat gun to soften the loctite. If you're afraid to use a heat gun around the wires, what some others have tried is using a soldering iron directly on the bolt. Once that's nice a hot, you can either try using a breaker bar or a high powered impact wrench, I'm talking 20V or an air gun. A few others have had their bolts stripped using a low quality torx bit so please use something of high quality to lower your chances of a stripped bolt. Let us know if any of those tricks work.

a striper

I went through the broken T50 bit too. I did not want to throw a lot of heat into the steering wheel so I heated the head of a 1/2 bolt (while holding it with vise grips) and touched hot bolt head to the fastener for about five seconds. Then it it with battery impact and it came out very easily.

X25

It really needs the heat for the loctite to soften up. I used my DEA shielding material and put it around, and then applied blow torch; a few seconds of the torch did the trick.

7LitreC5

Mine was also very tight. I hit it with a heat gun and it came right off.

LSX Camaro

I have switched out over 100 C7 steering wheels. You never want to use an impact gun on the center bolt. I have an assistant hold the wheel while I break it loose with a large breaker bar.

teddyca

Okay gentleman so what I have learned here is I need to apply some heat and I need a buddy to hold the wheel. lol I'm heading into town to pickup a Craftsmen bit. I don't think she's a problem so I will tackle it again today I think I'm also going to order a new bolt since the head on this one has taken a bit of abuse I truly appreciate everyone's assistance here. I will post up my findings once this is completed thanks again

davepl

Weird - I've done several now for myself and friends, and each time it's been my pneumatic impact and no hassle, zipped right out. And it's a Home Depot impact, nothing fancy.

Good to know what to do when one inevitably won't let go though!

blown81bu

we did 2 with torque 50 SNAP ON socket and breaker bar steering wheel all the way to left NO issues
torque is only 22lbs to put back on with some blue lock tight