Looking the Haynes, I agree with Typecastboy.

The illustration clearly shows that there are marks on the column and the wheel and you have to align them. It also says that if there aren't any marks, you must make them.

There are no "master keys" to it. It's just plain splines and it's up to you to get it on correctly.

Regards,
Mick.

My Haynes, which covers Panda and 500, told me about the alignment marks, but I can't remember if it advised about the master spline. Didn't pay attention to the 500 sub-section, but I'd doubt it would be different. Hopefully the wheel has not been forced over a master spline at some time. Not got access to my Haynes, or eLearn.

eLearn for the 500 makes no mention of a master spline, saying only 'place the steering wheel in position and tighten the nut to the recommended torque'. The relevant instructions for removing and refitting the steering wheel are attached below.

There are no retaining tabs on mine.

I know how to get it off as I did it a couple of months ago when I replaced the airbags and dash. I now have to take a good airbag off and the difficult part is releasing the three clips that hold the airbag module onto the steering wheel. with a blown bag I could get a screwdriver down the edge under the cap that covers the bag to release it. All the instructions I could find said release them from underneath the wheel between the cowling and the wheel.

Not possible on mine. its obviously changed.

I'm hoping I can get the centre cap prised off and still get to them with a new airbag in place. Once you he airbag is out its a five minute job.

Many years ago, we had a Mini and the track-rod ends needed replacing. You have to align the tracking afterwards and I went to a local garage to have it done.

Basically, you put the steering wheel in the correct position, then the tracking is adjusted whilst you hold the steering wheel still.

Therefore .................. can you not put the steering wheel correctly orientated and adjust the tracking to suit?

Just an idea.

Good luck,
Mick.

Mick F said:

Many years ago, we had a Mini and the track-rod ends needed replacing. You have to align the tracking afterwards and I went to a local garage to have it done.

Basically, you put the steering wheel in the correct position, then the tracking is adjusted whilst you hold the steering wheel still.

Therefore .................. can you not put the steering wheel correctly orientated and adjust the tracking to suit?

Just an idea.

Good luck,
Mick.

Click to expand...

No; absolutely, 100 times no.

Unless the track control arms are of equal length (or very close to it), the ackermann geometry will be wrong whenever the steering is not straight ahead and the car will handle badly & scrub its tyres when cornering. The car has to be pointing straight ahead with the track geometry correctly adjusted before refitting the steering wheel.

I once had the misfortune of being given a used company car that had been badly repaired following an accident; the steering wheel pointed straight ahead and according to the local tracking company the toe was adjusted perfectly, but it handled like s**t, wore out front tyres in 10000 miles and had a RH turning circle at least four feet wider than the LH one.

jrkitching said:

No; absolutely, 100 times no.

Unless the track control arms are of equal length (or very close to it), the ackermann geometry will be wrong whenever the steering is not straight ahead and the car will handle badly & scrub its tyres when cornering. The car has to be pointing straight ahead with the track geometry correctly adjusted before refitting the steering wheel.

Click to expand...

Well, that's me told!

However, it works for Minis so long as the steering wheel isn't far out, so I guessed it was ok for "normal" cars.

Typcastboy's steering wheel was described as at "1 o'clock", so it's not far out. Maybe only one spline?

Thanks, and Merry Christmas!
Mick.

Good idea there JR, I think I'll take it somewhere to get the tracking checked before i take the wheel off again.

Steering wheel re-done today. As you know I had trouble getting it off last time, so I emailed Club500Italia as they take 500s apart all the time. They told me that all the steering wheels have the holes, but you have to take top and bottom cowling off to get to them.

I was looking in the wrong place, I thought they were further up the wheel at the back. The USA video on Youtube shows the holes in a different place, so their Airbags must be different.

Took off the cowling, pushed and fiddled about a flat bladed screwdriver and it popped off. Pictures attached.

Steering wheel is now straight.

Also sorted out the Start/Stop and Heated Rear Window that weren't working, all it was was a cable that is connected immediately behind the panel which is connected to the switches themselves had come out of the connection. Five minutes, and it's all working again.

As for my breaks binding problem. While I was lying on my back unscrewing the bottom cowling of the steering column I had a good look at the brake assembly and what a complicated bit of engineering it is too.

When I got the car back from the paint shop, the interior was covered in a layer of sanding dust, it was everywhere. I can only assume that when they took the old door off, they were doing bodywork before putting on the new one. I cleaned it up best I can, but the mechanism at the brake pedal is also a bit covered in dust. I've tried to dust it off and I've now sprayed WD40 all over the mechanism so time will tell.

I was going to change the brake pads today, but I'm going to see how it is now after WD40ing it all.

Fingers crossed.

Apart from changing the plugs to Iridium ones and fitting a new Air filter, all I have to do now is put in the new (second hand) Airbag ECU, and it should be all done.

Still slight issue with brakes binding. Spoke to a mechanic who suggested that I put a scissor jack under the pedal and wind it up just slightly higher than its normal resting place. Done that today and lubricated the mechanism so need a longish drive to see if it's done the trick.

I did notice that there is a loose fitting bolt/spline which connects the pedal and shaft to the pivot mechanism, that seemed to be not straight, I'm wondering whether that is something to do with the problem too. I've pushed it back into position so it's straight now.

The amount is so tiny, literally a mm. When I feel the brakes slightly binding I hook my foot briefly under the pedal and it frees it. I thought the worn pads might have caused excessive piston travel on the calipers so as well as cleaning the pad carriers again, I've put in new pads too. All cleaned and greased up but although it's improved it, it's still there.

Will give it a longish run to see if I've cracked it.

Still got to change the airbag ECU, I had another go at resetting the fault codes this morning but it won't reset for some reason. I got a new ECU with the new dash and airbags so hopefully it's just a matter of swapping them over. Job for tomorrow!

I wonder if something in the brake system was affected by the crash... you said in an earlier post that the brake lights were on as if something stuck because they were maybe standing on the pedal when the crash happened.

I had an annoying problem with the rear (Brembo) brake on my motorbike... I was sure that the caliper pistons were sticking, and I couldn't push them back against the fluid / reservoir. It turned out that the master cylinder was sticking internally (known weakpoint) and I had to replace that.

When I just took my twinair to local tyre place I asked them about it and the engineer there said it could just be a bit of air in the fluid as it's such a small amount. I'm Gong to get a bleeding kit and try. It's just a process of elimination.

You could be right though, someone has probably stamped on the brakes when the crash happened. Been driving the twinair today though so haven't seen if my efforts today gave worked.

I am a very happy bunny this afternoon. After dreading it for months I've finally took the plunge and changed the airbag ECU for the "new" one that came with the dash and airbags. Fiddly blighter to get out, but I've done it and hey presto, no more airbag light, just need to do a proxy alignment and assuming I've sorted the brake binding issue its now finished.

It's been a long job on this one and I'm not sure I would do another one with blown dash airbags it's just too much work and costly.

I hope my diary of repair has been informative and just a way of saying thanks and giving back to the forum as you've been a great help along the way.

Thank you!

Thinking about the brake binding.
Putting a jack under the pedal seems a strange 'fix'. Next time you press it, it will be back where it was.
Air in the system will not hold the brakes on, so discount that.

Elsewhere on this forum, particularly Bravo I think, others have had issues with brakes holding on due to the brake light switch not allowing the pedal to return fully. There is a method of resetting the switch, you'll have to search for it.

portland_bill said:

Thinking about the brake binding.
Putting a jack under the pedal seems a strange 'fix'. Next time you press it, it will be back where it was.
Air in the system will not hold the brakes on, so discount that.

Elsewhere on this forum, particularly Bravo I think, others have had issues with brakes holding on due to the brake light switch not allowing the pedal to return fully. There is a method of resetting the switch, you'll have to search for it.

Click to expand...

Funnily enough I noticed today after sorting out my airbag ECU that he brake lights were on all the time. This happened before and I took the switch out and reset it, I have done the same thing again, I winder if maybe I should buy a new switch

typecastboy said:

I winder if maybe I should buy a new switch

Click to expand...

Seems like a good plan.

Do you think it could be as basic as the return spring has been stretched too far in the accident?

VW T4's suffer from this (not accident damage, just age).

Well a drive back and forth to work today, no more brake binding. I believe it was the "pin" that goes through the pedal where it pivots which seemed too far to the left and pushed towards the front. I pushed it back so it was straight and it's now fine.

Ive got a picture in my iMac which I'll upload later