GTV6 Steering Wheel Removal and Related Questions

["David R Johnson" <johnsnd@domain.elided>]

Alfisti,

I am curious to know if others have had as much trouble as I had removing the
steering wheel from my GTV6.  I bought a Sears Craftsman generic steering wheel
puller, which included many bolt sizes but of course not the M6 bolt required.
 M6 bolts not being easy to find in the right length, I managed to find some M6
threaded rod instead.  Now I can pull it - NOT.  Puller has stupid non-slip
swivel foot to push on the nut, which of course slips off.  Removal of the foot
in a vise leaves a ball which fits nicely in the machined recess in the shaft.
 (I also left the nut halfway on to catch the puller ball in case it should
slip).  Now I can pull it - WRONG!  Puller neatly removes the threads from the
steering wheel threaded hole.  OK, I don't give up easily so I drilled and
tapped both holes to 3/8-16 and bought 6 inch long bolts (puller supplied bolts
being to short), and CRACK, finally I suceed in pulling the wheel.

So is it always this difficult?  If so, I hope the method described above may
be helpful to someone.

Related questions: I don't really need to pull the ignition lock this time, but
no doubt I will some day.  How is this done?  There seems to be a giant rivit
or headless bolt at the bottom, would drilling this out allow removal, or is
there more to it?  There is also a piece of the cylindrical housing behind the
plastic trim ring which looks like it might be removable.  Can anyone provide
some insight as to how this all comes apart?

Lastly, spending all this time in close proximity to my steering wheel, I
finally noticed that it is not wooden, as I had assumed, but wood-grained
plastic.  It even has the word "Plasticorp" or some such equivalent moulded
into it.  Was this the standard wheel for the GTV6?  I am somewhat dissapointed
I suppose to discover this fakery, but OTOH now I don't have to worry about
impaling myself on a piece of split timber in a collision.  Also, the wheel has
some kind of varnish or something which is flaking off.  Anyone know what this
is, and what works best as a replacement?

Thanks in advance for all insight,

Dave J.
1982 GTV6 (reaching final stage of dissassembly for the body shop)

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