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Watched all the videos before I started removing the wheel and read many strings in the forum (even the horror stories). In the end I had a buddy help and with just two pulls when I added a lever pole over my breaker bar it was all over. Put the wheel back on and sitting in the corner with my thumb in my mouth crying now. This happened after I tried heat with a small torch as read on here and every other trick I could find on the net. please tell me there is a way if you figured it out.
I've done 2 steering wheel swaps so far. Mine, and my buddies. On mine, I was able to break it fee without any issue. I kept a lot of pressure inwards on the socket wrench and T50 socket using a piece of pipe over top of the handle to the 1/2" socket wrench. Initially, I tried using my breaker bar that is about a 25" long handle, but the head of it had too much turn, so I removed it and went to my 1/2" socket with a piece of 2 ft long pipe to use as leverage. All good......
When I went to help my buddy do his wheel here at my house, we had more difficulty. We didn't even try to use a breaker bar....... just went with what worked on my car a couple months earlier....... 1/2" socket wrench with the T50 socket, and a 6" extension on the socket, along with a piece of 2 ft long pipe for leverage. With the 2 of us working this, it started to strip his T50 bolt. My T50 socket was still in perfect condition, but the bolt was starting to crumble . YIKES !!!! We kept heavy inwards pressure on the end of the socket wrench and it started to slowly turn the bolt. We did get the bolt out, and due to the fact that we didn't have a replacement, we re installed it again..... including the blue lock tite.
In both cases, one of us sat in the drivers seat and grabbed on the steering wheel with all our might, while the other one stood outside the car and used the socket wrench, and extension bar with pressure against the T50 socket and bolt.
I had one other large T type bolt I couldn't get out of my engine bay at one point that held down my carbon fiber Triangle pieces. The T 40 stripped out totally..... I went down to my local dealer ( Criswell, Thurmont, MD ) and the Corvette mechanic came out to be his very helpful self went and got a T 45 socket and jammed into the stripped bolt and said we basically had one shot at getting it out...... and it came out..... I went to their parts counter and order a new one !!!!
thats the wheel I'm trying to install, aside from your ability not to screw it up as bad as I did, any advice
If you've really stripped out the T50 bolt, then try what my dealer did for me with my engine bay carbon fiber piece bolt was stripped........ go to the next size up T socket..... I guess T55 ???? and jamb it in there, have someone sitting in the seat holding the wheel with both hands and use a 1/2" socket with an extension piece of pipe on the handle to the socket wrench. Give it a try.
Try to get a Mac tools RBRT torx bit. Be extremely careful if you have to tap it in. Hit too hard and you will collapse the column.
These bolts are the worst. You need 2 people to remove most of the time.
If you can get your hands on the Mac bit stay with the same size. The problem with a bigger size is you’ll likely have to hammer it in. Which is risking the column. Worst case scenario is you’ll have to drill the head off and get the threaded part out with the wheel out of the way.
As I understand what happened, it is exactly why some old factory manuals say to use an impact. Also, a torch is not the answer in many situations, whereas a good soldering gun can be... very direct heat and not risk of burning down the car. Btw, you do NOT want to bang on the steering column. I cannot speak for the C8, but I've seen other vehicle air-bags go off if so treated. All the best on your repair, in any event.
This is what I used...I tried a 1/2 in drive rachet, but even with a piece of pipe, It wouldn't break the bolt.With the impact gun I could keep the T-50 bit fully inserted in the bolt...and after a couple of tries it finally broke loose!..
Stripped Steering Wheel bolt
