My South African 80 Series

[GeorgeG]

Byron, awesome news, awesome truck! Wish you tons of wonderful moments and travels with it!
Did you named it yet?

 

[ByronJ]

Byron, awesome news, awesome truck! Wish you tons of wonderful moments and travels with it!
Did you named it yet?

Thank you for your good wishes George. When performing her first reversing manouver Zelda tangled with a metal post that someone had placed in her blind spot, it did have a tap attached to it.... While extracting herself she managed to carve a "Z" in the nearside rear bumper. Zelda decided this looked just like the signature Z used by Zorro.

So from then on the car has been called "Zorro" .

 

[ByronJ]

The next job was to replace the steering wheel as it was in a sorry state.

Forewarned I had brought out out a replacement wheel from @karl webster which he had re-covered in brown leather.

Because of the air bag I was a little nervous of removing the steering wheel but it all went very smoothly. This is what I did (from memory):

• With the engine running I rotated the steering wheel so that it looked level to my eye. It does not matter where the wheels are pointing as I just wanted to be able to fit the new wheel at the same angle as the old one and our brains are pretty good at judging horizontal and vertical.
• Switched the engine off and disconnected all cables from the negative poles of both batteries.
• The airbag module is held in place by two torx bolts which are hidden underneath plastic panels either side of the plastic housing under the wheel. On my car the cruise control stalk passes through the right hand panel. I popped the panels pop out easily enough and loosened the bolts, they are captive so remain in the housing.
• With the bolts extracted from the airbag module I lifted it off the housing, passed it through the wheel and rested it on the dash. I left the electrical connection to the airbag alone as there was enough spare cable. Then the wheel looked like this
  
  

The yellow cable at the top of the picture is the power supply to the airbag.

• Removed the vertical horn bar on the right (two torx screws)
• Detached the cruise control stalk from the wheel
• Removed the vertical horn bar on the left (two torx screws)
• With the bars out of the way I removed the four screws holding the lower plastic housing to the wheel
• Removed the nut holding the wheel on the spline
• Belted the centre of the spline with a copper hammer
• Using just my palms tapped around the wheel perimeter until the wheel came loose. It is best to take this stage gently as if you hit the wheel too hard, when trying to remove it, it is all too easy jam it on the spline. Of course using a puller is best...
• Popped the new wheel in place so it looked level to my eye and torqued down its nut
• Re-assembled/attached everything in reverse order to disassembly.

Job done. All in it took me about 40 minutes. The replacement wheel looks great and is a pleasure to hold.

 

[MarkW]

Looking much smarter Byron . Beats my black tape on the wheel!

 

[ByronJ]

Looking much smarter Byron . Beats my black tape on the wheel!

Thanks Mark, mind you the black tape is a much cheaper option . How is your new fridge working out?

 

[MarkW]

Still going great, very impressed with it for the money

 

[Michael Montgomery]

Great Job nothing like new

 

[dyladams]

Do what’s the plans for the cruiser? Where are you going travelling / exploring.