Not Broken, But It Sure Hurts (Steering Wheel Pulling Accident)

[roscoe]

Today seemed like a good day to pull my trafficator assembly out and figure out why it stopped self cancelling after making a turn. Both directions. Non-adjustable type. It was out and in pieces in a bag when I did my restoration so I knew I could probably at least see if something had broken and if not clean it up and reassemble this little nightmare. Removal and reassembly went about as expected, except I didn't lose any tiny parts. It needed a good cleaning and the hardware that holds the horn contacts had become loose. All good. It's nice because you can test the cancel function with the assembly out of the car just by moving the turn lever to signal a turn and then twisting the outer case of the trafficator and holding the front plastic cover it should pop back to center.

I had also been noticing that there was a bit of play in the steering wheel that I was pretty sure was due to a loose retention nut. That did turn out to be the case and I decided to pull the steering wheel off and check the splines. The book says the wheel should come off the splines with a firm pull, but if not a special puller may be used. I do have a pile of old special tools but the puller was not among them. Try as I might, it would slide about 3/4 of an inch and then just stop. Not exactly sure how this happens as if the hub is sliding on the splines at all I can't suss out why it would all of a sudden get hung up. I figured some heat might facilitate things and it did allow the wheel to slide further. I knew I was close so, sitting in the seat I gave it one final tug. You probably guessed, being a short guy my nose was right in line with the top of the steering wheel and I slammed myself in the nose so hard I saw stars. I'm glad I have a leather cover sewn onto my wheel. You'll pardon the alliteration but next time, I'm getting the Moss Motors idiot's Steering Wheel Puller Puffy Pillow.

 

[Randy Forbes]

A bit OT, but not really...
Before removing the shift knob from a BMW, I always suggest wearing a full-face helmet. One guy, shrugging off my advice - and I'm proud of him for admitting this - came back on the Bimmerfest.com forum later that night and posted a picture of his black eye.
True story

As for the trafficator, you have the same non-adjustable column one I have, and without ever having taken one apart before, I found it pretty easy to figure out - just don't lose any of the springs - and actually manageable to take apart, clean and reassemble. Since yours was working, but just stopped self-canceling, I expect it's just the "lubricant" got caked/gummed up and keeping the pawls from moving to their proper positions. Unless you actually find some broken bits in there, I'll bet just cleaning and relubing it will put it back to 100%.

 

[roscoe]

Not the only time I nearly knocked myself out. Back in the day I was the mechanic for a Highway Patrol helicopter and got one of the ground handling wheels stuck in its bracket. Usually you could kick one of the tires to get it uncocked to remove it from the skid. Since I was kneeling I took the hydraulic jack handle for raising the ship in its wheels and struck the tire. It bounced back and hit me vetween the eyes so hard I sat on my butt. Fortunately, the flight crew which included a tactical officer who was an emt were observing me. Unfortunately, they were laughing so hard he was useless. A small bandage was applied.... I always watch when the long haul truckers walk around their rigs hitting their tires with a bat to check for low pressure. They seem to be smarter than me.

 

[MikeAH100M]

The running joke in my family is that, when I come in the house after working on the car, my wife always has a bottle of hydrogen peroxide and Band-Aids sitting on the counter.

 

[roscoe]

Also, thanks Reid for adding the parenthetical note that this was a steering wheel mishap. I realized after I posted that there might actually have been a snip or two of useful information that would never be found on a search for anything that was in my post. I've made this mistake before and I recall you added something to be more descriptive to my title in that case as well. Glad someone is paying attention.

 

[Healey Nut]

A bit OT, but not really...
Before removing the shift knob from a BMW, I always suggest wearing a full-face helmet. One guy, shrugging off my advice - and I'm proud of him for admitting this - came back on the Bimmerfest.com forum later that night and posted a picture of his black eye.
True story

As for the trafficator, you have the same non-adjustable column one I have, and without ever having taken one apart before, I found it pretty easy to figure out - just don't lose any of the springs - and actually manageable to take apart, clean and reassemble. Since yours was working, but just stopped self-canceling, I expect it's just the "lubricant" got caked/gummed up and keeping the pawls from moving to their proper positions. Unless you actually find some broken bits in there, I'll bet just cleaning and relubing it will put it back to 100%.

I took serious note of this Randy . I have been meaning to remove the gearshift surround on her Z4 to fix the gouges in that leather look paint they use . Anyways no full face helmet available so safety glasses on and keep out of the way . Didn’t need to pull too hard and off she came no problem . Decided to carbon wrap the surround ….she approves so it’s all good .
No part time BMW techs were injured during the course of said work

 

[emgeetf]

I was confronted with the same issue trying to pull the steering wheel off my 63 Healey 3000. it would move a little bit and stop and would not budge after that. I read up a lot of articles and finally there it was, a guy explaining why the steering would not come off in a Austin Healey 3000. There is a circlip ( mine was a adjustable steering wheel ) that you can hardly see since it is almost flush with the shaft that needs to pulled out prior to removing the steering wheel. I was able to find it put a curved hook type of puller in there and off the circlip came and flew off over my head and i have still not found it even after 6 months of looking. After that the steering wheel came off real easy and putting the new one was also easy but the mistake i made is not attaching and drawing a nylon string when i drew my trafficator/ Horn button wires off before removing the wheel.

 

[roscoe]

I believe that the adjustable steering wheels set up has the snap ring/ circlip and that the non- adjustable set up has only the large nut and lock washer. At least that's what the parts blowup on the Moss pages shows. I have never had a circlip. Surely if there had been one on my car it would have ended up hitting me in the eye as I bashed my head. The procedure in the BN1 /BN2 shop manual for removing the non-adjustable wheel wheel does not mention taking a circlip off, only that a puller may be needed.

 

[Bob_Spidell]

If you forget to tie the trafficator leads with string, you can wrap the leads with thin mechanic's wire and feed it through the stator out the steering box.

One thing I've 'found religion' on over the years is anti-seize grease--torque specs considered, of course--the splines on steering components are an appropriate use IMO. I've got a large bottle of the cheapie, GP stuff--ceramics-based I think--and a small bottle of expensive, high-temp, nickel-based for spark plug threads, etc. (note plugs for newer cars come with some sort of dry lube and the exotic metals-type are pre-gapped).