Steering Wheel Help
 

Has anyone replaced their steering wheel? I spoke to a service advisor and they said it would require recalibrating the wheel. I think that's BS because per my understanding here there is just one way the steering wheel bolts on with no room for adjustment. Also, is it true that it's held on with just one center bolt? And I guess the airbag absolutley needs to be removed in order to replace the steering wheel, huh?

Yes airbag needs to come off. I think there's more than 1 bolt? I'll see. I'm replacing my steering wheel soon as well. I don't see why the wheel would need to be realigned

Airbag has to come off. Watch out for the clock spring, if you don't align it properly you'll lose ABS and TCS/VSC.

Do you have more details on this clock spring? Where is it located/what's it look like/would I still need to align it if I can avoid touching it?

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Got a shop manual?

Older models of cars, (without airbags), usually just had a center cap that covered a bolt to the steering column. That is just one bolt, and you can improperly align the steering wheel if you reinstall it incorrectly. If you are going to swap the whole steering wheel, including the airbag system then that will have to be removed. You can use a sharpie to mark where the very top of your steering wheel is to align it without its replacement.

However, if you are just replacing the outside part I think our vehicles have a couple bolts holding it to a plate behind the airbag that is in turn bolted to the steering column, meaning you only have to take a couple bolts off and no messing with the steering column bolt is required,.

I don't have a shop manual but I'm starting to think I won't be messing with the clock spring if I don't need to remove the airbag mount (just removing the stock airbag, replacing the steering wheel, and reusing the stock airbag).
Yes, I would be doing the latter replacing the outside rim and keeping the stock airbag. So the wheel bolts onto the airbag mount and I'm guessing the airbag mount is the piece which would require re-calibration for the clock spring. Since I won't tamper with the airbag mount (just will be removing the airbag, not the mount), no re-calibration of anything would be necessary, yeah?

So that center bolt... I don't want to touch that then? I still wonder if I can remove the outer rim of the steering wheel by removing those two bolts you are talking about without removing the stock airbag.

gotta make sure you keep the spline teeth alignment the same. if you do that, you won't need to recal anything.

^^ this is what you have to keep aligned, the teeth are on the steering column if you take that bolt off, which you are saying you will not do.

I have seen the airbag removed with the steering wheel still attached. After removing bolts/clips? keeping it on it is just unplugged *make sure you detach the negative battery post and leave it off for at least 15 minutes. I do this to avoid blowing the bag, it will allow the capacitors that fire the airbag to fully drain (it won't take the full 15 but just to be EXTRA safe since they are pricey.)

Yes, I would just be replacing the outer steering wheel and reusing the stock airbag. So from what I gather, I would need to remove the airbag to be able to unbolt the steering wheel from the airbag's "mounting plate" via two or more bolts/clips (NOT the center bolt which keeps the "mounting plate" aligned to the steering column via splined teeth). Good call on discharging the caps @AtlasMick; I'll do that. Thanks for all your input guys.

Unbolt negative battery terminal, step on brake pedal. That should get rid of most of the residual charge.

or unbolt terminal and wait 5-10 minutes, and make sure that if there is steering angle sensor it does not go out of whack or you might need to get it re-calibrated!

Stumbled on this in the DIY section http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12257