Hi eveyone, i need to fit an ignition barrel and i was wondering if anyone knows how to remove the old ignition barrel. It has a bolt on it without any kind of unscrewing design on it. i think its called a "shearing bolt" (very bad designing) anyway its become my nemisis and i was wondering if anyone knows how to remove it? Many thanks in advance.

shear bolts are an excellent design and if you do have one on the barrel then you will have trouble getting it off, the bolt tip is severed when fitting so there is no easy way of getting them off. one side will have a nut and the other will have a round head. get an electric or air powered ratchet on the nut, set it to full torque and off it comes

forgot to mention, a grinder on the round head can be used to create stright edges to grip onto, or even to cut the head off.

although i remember the ignition barrel releases by removing the retaining circlip. have you checked haynes for the correct procedure? shear bolts are generally designed to never need removing

Hey whats the retaining circlip? I have a fiat bravo service manual that i obtained from this forum and the diagrams and everything on it says that you have to remove these the shear bolts in order to remove the ignition switch block. I might try the idea of creating edges using a grinder thats probably the best option. Bvut what is the circlip? Thanks alot you've been really helpful

i dont know if the bravo has a circlip on the ignition barrel, but from experience of other cars i know its a fairly common method used for keeping a lock barrel in place. the clip is shaped like the letter C and once removed from the back of the lock barrel it is possible to pull the barrel out using the key. actually now that i think about it i vauguely remember the door locks on bravo's have a circlip on them, so it would seem likely that the ignition barrel may also have one.

Thanks, i'll look for it when i start removing the barrel. I just went out and bought a metal grinder but im faced with a new problem. The steering wheel is in the way of the shearing bolts so i cnt grind them off . Do you by any chance know how i can remove the steering wheel or is there any manual anywhere tht tells you how to do it. Thanks

steering wheel is very easy, there are 2 bolts holding the airbag on from the back side of the steering wheel, you need an allen key to remove them, with the airbag removed you simply remove the single bolt holding the wheel on and then give it a bit of a wiggle if it wont budge. disconnect the battery for 10-15mins before removing airbag, otherwise it may go off, and it would also put the airbag light on permanently

jug said:

steering wheel is very easy, there are 2 bolts holding the airbag on from the back side of the steering wheel, you need an allen key to remove them, with the airbag removed you simply remove the single bolt holding the wheel on and then give it a bit of a wiggle if it wont budge. disconnect the battery for 10-15mins before removing airbag, otherwise it may go off, and it would also put the airbag light on permanently

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Make sure you also remove the airbag fuse when you've disconnected the battery. Helps to prevent airbag lights coming on.

be very carelul to disconnect the clockspring before removing the wheel. these are delicate and expensive.