Hey folks, just wanted to share how I removed my steering wheel last night from my 1450 which may help someone later who finds this post. I had it soaking in PB Blaster for a few days. I first tried the block of wood method but wound up breaking the wood. I then tried a 3 jaw puller but it kept slipping off, not to mention it probably would have dinged up the wheel pretty bad after seeing how much force was needed.
What I wound up doing- put a flange bolt down the shaft to protect it. Then used a harmonic balancer puller I already had from a car project. To “attach” the puller to the wheel, I took the end of a ratchet strap and wrapped the spokes several times as wide as possible to help spread the force. In case something broke with force I wore my full face motorcycle helmet for safety
Anyway, it was no fuss, just tightened it down and it popped off with no damage. No hammering, using the knees, etc. Now, to rebuild/grease the steering box but I’m stuck at work for now….
