I need to pull my wheel, looked at the factory manuals for the 97, nothing unusual. They say use the factory puller, part #..., looked at the special tool section and it looks like all the steering/vibration dampner pullers of the era, capable of 3 bolt or 2 bolt pulling, threaded rod in the middle. And then the wheel: There is nothing on that alum hub, except the horn plug in and the four steel spokes branching out to the wheel. How do you get ahold of that wheel to pull it? Thanks

 

Is it an F150? The jellybean doesn't have threaded holes for a puller like the OBS, you need a three jaw puller I believe. The OBS wheel has threaded holes on either side of the center hole.


Non-cruise / speed control wheel out of my 1995 XL.

 

Assuming you're in the right form. them a '97 would be either an F-250HD or and F-350. I replaced the steering wheel on my '97 F-250HD a year or two ago. As I recall the original wheel didn't have any threaded holes to pull against, but it did have a couple of indentations opposite each other so I was able to grab it with a 2-jaw puller. The puller popped off a few times, so I think I ended up holding it together with a hose clamp or something, but it worked eventually. (The replacement wheel, also a stock Ford part, did have threaded holes for a puller, so apparently there were variations)

 

If he has a 1997 F250 or F350, the wheel should look like this, with two threaded holes for a puller.


If he has a 1997 F150 or later, the wheel would look like this...


And there wouldn't be threaded holes, at least not in the ones I've seen, and you would need a 2 or 3 jaw puller.

 

I have never used a puller to remove a steering wheel. Loosen the nut a few turns then plant your feet on the floor, grab the wheel with both hands (3 and 9 o'clock work good), then pull/wiggle a bit. The steering wheel pops loose after a few seconds. It's VERY important to make sure the nut is still fully engaged with the threads, but enough room for the wheel to pop off the splines.

Your mileage may vary.

 

That increases the chance that you'll break/bend the wheel, the puller makes it very painless. Here is one that works well on the OBS

The other day I came across a '96 F150 XLT at the Pull-a-Part that had a nice looking cruise control wheel (with leather!). I went back to my car for my steering wheel puller, got back out to the truck, pulled the airbag... and someone had already cracked the inner frame of the wheel

 

Guess I have been lucky over the past 40 years or so.

 

I don't know what the OP has, but I know that I have a '97 F-250HD. The replacement wheel I got from a junkyard looks like what you show above for a '97 F-250 or F-350. But the wheel that came on my '97 F-250HD is a little different. It looks essentially the same but it doesn't have the threaded holes. Instead it has the indentations I mentioned in my previous post.

Oh, and the '97 F-250 likely uses the same steering wheel as the '97 F-150 since they were both the new body style. It's the '97 F-250HD that was still old body style like the F-350.

 

When I said 1997 F250 or F350, I was referring to the OBS trucks. They had the same non-airbag wheel as the 1993 F150. The 1997+ F150 (and F250 LD) had the newer wheel, without threaded holes.

 

Here's the wheel out of my 97 F250 XL, I finally noted the slots under the ribbed portion of the hub, and was able to make a puller work. One of those pullers that is a bar with arms mounted on the ends and there is a threaded bolt under the bar to hold the puller arms together. Worked great. The wheel I replaced it with is a leather one out of a late 90s F350 and the hub is the same. I just thought I was being stupid, and I was, I didn't see the obvious, and thanks guys for the responses that pointed the way. Simple job.

 

I was just trying to make sure the '97 F-250 / F-250HD difference was noted (not one of Ford's "Better Ideas" giving two completely different trucks the same name in the same model year).

Yep. that's what the wheel in my '97 F-250HD looked like. Glad you got it to work!

 

I know! I was all excited a few weeks ago when I got an e-mail alert for a 1997 F250 at my local Pull-a-Part... only to see nothing but jellybeans in the row... and then I noticed that one of the jellybeans was a 1997 F250 LD :-/

 

Make sure you have marks for installation to center the wheel.

 

All the OBS wheels I've seen have a flat spot, so they only go on one way.

 

I was at the Pull-a-Part today, and saw the truck with a broken steering wheel... I don't know if it was broken by someone trying to remove it, but the airbag wasn't deployed.



I had to remove a wheel once at the Pull-a-Part, from a steering column that had already been disconnected... if the steering column was still bolted to a truck I would have tried your method. I ended up sitting the wheel (face up) on two stacks of wheels, so that the (unbolted) column was dangling beneath it. Then I put a 3/8" extension through the middle, and beat it a few times with a sledge hammer... column fell right out! The next time I used a $15 puller kit... took 10 seconds with zero sweat.