1999 XJ 2.5TD - I broke the steering wheel

[M84AB1]

Hi guys,

as the title says, today I attempted to remove my clock spring (airbag light was coming on and I wanted to investigate) and the actual steering wheel whilst pulling literally broke at the shaft/column

Did I do something wrong? Can this happen for a vehicle this age? I removed the airbag and proceeded to remove the steering wheel with a steering wheel puller but as I was tightening the centre bolt, the actual plastic of the steering wheel just broke on the left hand side and from there on there was no saving it.

I was using this puller from supercheap auto

Hmm not sure how to now remove whatever remains attached or where to buy a new steering wheel. Wondering if steering wheels from different models are interchangeable...etc

[LuluBelle]

whoa what a disaster !! might be a trip to the wreckers I don't know about other steering wheels fitting
_____ooooo
/__l_l_,\____\,___
l_---l_l__l---[ ]llllll[ ]
_.(o)_)__(o)_)--o-)_)

[oldon]

I think it was on cherokee forum that I read a grand Cherokee wheel up to 2001 will fit. Later than 2001 no good because of airbag, gc wheel looked a bit better in the pictures. Was some time ago, but may be helpful.

[Jimmyb]

Going to be delicate surgery to get that off now. Considering the clock spring is probably broken already, you could cover everything up and use a grinder with a cut off wheel and put a cut on both left and right sides to free up the offending piece.

Go slow and be patient. That would be my solution anyways.

[Banshee]

You can see it doesn't look happy about what is coming, in that fist pic!



Heat collar with a torch & then apply ice to the shaft & then add some wd-40 or the like, to see if you can loosen it that way? Is the collar aluminium or steel? Aluminium expands faster when heated than steel does. We used that for installing/removing bearings from aluminium housings, when I worked on inertial nav systems.

[Malinowiy]

Here is my experience.

https://www.drive2.ru/l/475589082743833192/

It's in Russian, sorry about that.

I broke the st.wheel while I tried to replace old worn out plastic one with the leather.

Aluminium part of the wheel is easy to break. There is no way of using big angular grinder. I used Dremel with angular addon to remove big aluminium parts. When I had only steel nut sitting on column - I tried puller, but no luck.

There is no way to use dremel to cut the steel nut and not to destroy clockspring. I used dremel with flexible shaft and Proxxon high speed milling cutter. I destroyed one cutter - it's really hard to mill through steel by hand.

It took me about almost a week to remove steering wheel remains, working 3-4 hours in evenings.

Aluminium covered all the cabin. Steel was in front of the cabin only.

Take all precausions!!! Wear protection!!! There is no way to fix the eye. Always keep that in mind.

I hope my photos will help.

[Malinowiy]

You will need to rebuild clockspring in case of grinding and milling. A lot of metal debris will destroy it swiftly.