Removing helm wheel

[coopec43]

Well here is another guy who uses a gear puller and "violence" (with a club hammer) to remove a wheel hub

"Following advice I custom made a hefty 3 legged cross bar with a short fat screw, probably something like 1" diameter 20 tpi, having solidly bolted on legs. Wound her up tight, gave it a few sharp whacks with a club hammer, wound a bit more, whacked again and left it an hour or so to think about things after tightening up again. Came off during the second torque up and whack sequence on my.."

I was told the theory behind placing a club hammer on one side of the gear and giving the gear a sharp wack on the other side is that it distorts the gear maybe just 1/1000 of an inch and because of the taper the gear automatically moves to the narrower end.

The Caterpillar Heavy Diesel fitters also told me if they have to drill through heat hardened stainless steel they use sharpened masonry drills and heavy pressure (and slow 100 rpm)

[stormalong]

If the previous owner coated the shaft with grease you will be OK. If not it could be a nightmare. First try just remove the nut and pull. If that does not work use a gear puller and increasing levels of force. Be sure to grease it before re-assembly. I prefer Teflon grease but any waterproof grease will do.

[IanTrail]

My wheel has a straight shaft but needs a lot of grunt with a 3 jaw puller to remove it. I have found 2 jaw pullers useless for this; they just collapse sideways.
Obviously clean-up and lubricate before re-fitting but even then I didn't like the idea of 'tapping' it back into place with a big mallet. The wheel spindle is at the top of the steering pedestal and any 'tapping' will be flexing the pedestal in its deck mountings: ouch! So I made a simple Pusher which enables me to draw the wheel back onto the spindle by turning a nut on a threaded rod. You might need a different sort of Pusher than I made but I believe it's much kinder to the steering components.

[coopec43]

Originally Posted by IanTrail

My wheel has a straight shaft but needs a lot of grunt with a 3 jaw puller to remove it. I have found 2 jaw pullers useless for this; they just collapse sideways.
Obviously clean-up and lubricate before re-fitting but even then I didn't like the idea of 'tapping' it back into place with a big mallet. The wheel spindle is at the top of the steering pedestal and any 'tapping' will be flexing the pedestal in its deck mountings: ouch! So I made a simple Pusher which enables me to draw the wheel back onto the spindle by turning a nut on a threaded rod. You might need a different sort of Pusher than I made but I believe it's much kinder to the steering components.

Why not use the shaft nut instead of a "pusher"

[IanTrail]

Hi coopec43

I can't use the shaft nut initially because I need to get the wheel a good 50% onto the shaft before the threaded shaft pokes out far enough to get the nut on.

[s/v Jedi]

For those straight shaft problems simply hone out the steering wheel for more clearance. A strip of sandpaper glued to a dowel in a hand drill works when you don’t have a good fitting flapper wheel.

Use anti-seize instead of grease. Start the wheel by placing a large socket over the hole and tapping on that so that it’s the center that is tapped instead of one side.

How many manufacturers are there?

[Newf1]

Just removed one a couple of days ago. It was on a tapered shaft and wouldn't move with my puller. No violence involved but gave the puller rod a little tap with a hammer and it popped. I'm sure you could start movement on a straight shaft using the same method. Mechanic's do this all the time with stubborn gears, bearings etc.