Made a little progress this morning!
With the right tool for the job, things get done. My new circlip pliers arrived yesterday and I put them to work this morning. Got that stubborn retaining clip off the steering wheel shaft in very short order. Then things got interesting.
I used my BFH along with a large punch to get the spool off the shaft. Quick and easy.
Then I needed to get the wheel off. The nut holding the shaft to the wheel is 15/16" but I don't have a socket that big. So I figured I'd punch the retaining pin out with a smaller BFH and a smaller punch. Uh, no. Bent and somewhat flattened the retaining pin. D'oh! :doh:
So I contacted my buddy to see if I could borrow a socket. He said no problemo, so I went over to his shop. He has a 5 bay shop capable of easily running a repair business. And I was smart... I took the whole steering assembly over there with me.
Yeah, it turned out to be just as tough to remove the wheel correctly as it has been on so many other projects here on iboats. But "the right tool for the job" in this case was my buddy and all his stuff! :lol:
He used an air tool to get the locking nut off. Had to clamp the shaft into his work bench vise, several times. But it came off. Then he started on the retaining pin. No joy at first, so he broke out a hack saw. That worked. Got the shaft out of the collars and whatnot. Then he took the wheel over to his drill press and drilled the remaining retaining pin out. After that, he took the shaft over to his belt sander and cleaned it up.
All done! Nice to have friends with the right tools! :eyebrows:
The new circlip pliers worked perfectly!
Everything disassembled.
Going to use this old piece as a template for the replacement. Will need to make allowances for the missing mulched parts! :laugh: