1985 230CE. I need to remove the steering wheel but the bolt is very tight
as if someone used green Loctite on the threads. There is green paint on the
head of the bolt. I am using a strong impact wrench. It removed the crank
pulley bolt with ease.

Any suggestions?

Thanks, Scott

"Scott Buchanan" <t120rv (AT) pacifier (DOT) com> wrote

That's overkill. Heat is used to loosen loctite, but you don't want to melt
any plastic. I would take a 1/2 inch steel rod, heat one end to red, then
hold it against the bolt for 30 seconds and try again. I would avoid an
impact and use a 2 foot breaker bar, as the vibration could damage the shaft
bearings, switches, etc if held on for long. If none of that works you can
always drill the head out to get the wheel off and give you room for serious
work with a stud puller or vise-grips.
--
Stupendous Man,
Defender of Freedom, Advocate of Liberty.

"Scott Buchanan" <t120rv (AT) pacifier (DOT) com> wrote

As a locksmith I have pulled a lot of steering wheels but have only pulled
one on my own Mercedes (1983 W123) Mine had an Allen screw retaining the
wheel and what I did was to insert the long end of the Allen wrench into the
screw and then two smaller wrenches to give me the leverage I needed.

Since you have a bolt or perhaps more correctly a hex head cap screw, I
would use a 6 point socket, with an extension and a tee handle breaker bar.
This should give you the leverage you need to break the most recalcitrant
fastener. Be sure to start this process with the steering wheel locked.

I suggest the Tee handle breaker bar as an Ell handle breaker bar on the
mother of a job you have requires you to push in real hard inward to keep
the socket from slipping on the head of the screw while trying to apply
torque with the other hand. While this can be done one slip and it is good
by windshield.


--

Roger Shoaf

About the time I had mastered getting the toothpaste back in the tube, then
they come up with this striped stuff.

On May 4, 10:26 am, "Scott Buchanan" <t12... (AT) pacifier (DOT) com> wrote:
I would not be afraid to use the impact to remove the allen bolt only.
If you have any valve grinding compund you may want to put it between
the head of the allen bit and the steering wheel bolt to keep from
rounding the bolt.
Mike

Impact on allen is always a bad idea... because majority of allen socket are
not designed for impact. You will simply ruin the socket.

Even if you didn't ruine the socket, you risk damaging the allen bolt.