TOPIC: Lake N Sea Steering Wheel Questions

Alrighty guys.. working to remove the dash tonight... and ran into a little bit of a hold up with the steering wheel.

I belive this particular wheel is found on quite a few of the early '60s fiberglass boats... not just Lake N Seas.

First Question: I got the wheel shaft nut off.. and of couse the wheel is stuck on the shaft. IS the wheel key'ed and slid on the shaft? OR is the bung in the center of the wheel threaded? I can't quite tell, and would hate to put a lot of pressure on the plastic flanges of the wheel with a puller, only to bust the wheel because it was threaded.


Second Question: Does anyone have.. or know where I can get a new center plastic Medalion for this wheel? Or even the manufacurer of the wheel so that I could seach for a replacement.. once the wheel is all polished and painted up, this center will look a little dull.


Thank you in advance for your input and advice!

Andy

Pictures of the wheel

Home made wheel puller didn't work.. and yes, that is a bimini top bracket being used on the wheel center!

It should be on a tapered keyed shaft. Get some PB blaster and let it soat in really good .Tap the top of shaft with a hammer as this will help the oil soak in better . Be carefull not to peen the shaft over . Just take your time and it will pull right off, Skip

Those look like Bessey clamps.
You should be getting lots of force.
Neil

Dito on the penetrating oil suggestion. Let patience & time work in your favor with this one. I can't recall the maker of that wheel, but I remeber that the center skirt area is VERY fragile. Check to see if the hub can be removed from the rear. if so, I'd try doing that & sliding the wheel & shaft off the dash as a whole. Sometimes these things are stuck to the point of being nearly impossible to remove.

I to have found steering wheels stuck on there tapered shafts more often than not. I have tried to remove the steering cable pulley system from the rear but have never been able to. If the steering wheel is stuck I have found the back side is stuck also. The rear pulley system attached to the steering wheel shaft is white metal and can be broken very easily with a wheel puller.

What I have done is to soak the shaft with your lubricant of choice. Remove the nut holding the steering wheel on. Clean it up and reinstall so that the top of the threaded shaft is 1/8" below the top of the nut. Then I stand between the back of the steering wheel and dash board with my back to the bow. Using my legs to put as much EVEN pressure on the back of the steering wheel spokes as I can, attempting to pushing the wheel off the tapered shaft. I have even gone as far to place pieces of cardboard between my legs the wheel spokes so my legs were not brused. Now I take a chisel sharpened to a point placed in the center of the top of the threaded steering wheel shaft and hit it with a heavy hammer as I push against the back of the wheel with my legs. Every stuck steering wheel I have had has come off using this procedure. The sharp chisel will leave a indentation of about 1/8" diameter and 1/8" deep in the top of the shaft. I have found this not to be enough to deform the threads and you have the nut in place to insure that the threads are not deformed.

A few cautions: As Bruce stated the steering wheel can be quite fragile. So when you apply pressure with your legs you want to do it evenly to the spokes as close to the center of the wheel as practical. As example if you were to apply pressure to the back of the wheel by leaning into the top of the wheel it may crack. I have found a sharp chisel to work very well. A flat chisel tends to mushroom out the top of the shaft deforming the threads although the nut is still in place. I have started with light taps/hits on the chisel working up to really smacking the son of a gun. Every single wheel has come off with no damage to the wheel or the threaded shaft. In some instances I needed a two pound hammer as a nail hammer would not do it.

Hows that for a explanation!!! (possibly a little annal??)

Greg Anderson
Wisconsin

perfection Mr. Anderson! I think I have some great materials to start on tonight! Thank you to others as well!

I am a big boy and got good strong and padded legs, haha, so I should be able to give it a good try! I will let you know of my luck and maybe even take an in-progress photo for giggles...

It is soaking in a liberal spray of WD-40 as we speak..

Back to designing schools until the evening comes!

I used Greg's method with great sucess when I was pulling '55,56 Chevy Belair & '58,'59,'60 Chevy Impala steering wheels for restoration when I found them at wrecking yards. However I just removed the steering wheel from the Skagit 20 the other day using MAP gas.Although my wheel is all aluminum with no plastic I see enough open space in the center section that you could try it if Greg's method fails. I'd wrap a wet rag around the outer plastic and hit the aluminum center with some heat in a couple places on the outside of the center section.As the aluminum absorbs heat quickly you shouldn't need but a few seconds in any one area. My wheel lifted off using my finger tips and now sports a shiny white paint job.

Melanie

Well.. I got the wheel off! I tried the leg method... but simply put.. my legs just don't fit there! haha.. so luckily I have a harbo frieght about 1 mile from my home, and I ran on down and bought a reasonable set of wheel pullers. came back home, and a little bit of spray and encouragement and off she came intact! I'll let the pictures tell the tale...

and finally I confirmed a thought running in the back of my mind... my RED boat wasn't originally RED! It was Coral PINK! I am not sure if I'll go back pink, but one thing for sure, I will leave this original gel coat under the dash so that a future restorer will have an idea what the original color was!

Allan Marine, Inc. of Hicksville, NY used the ship's wheel as their emblem. Your steering wheel is most likely an Allan.

www.fiberglassics.com/library/Allan_Marine