Steering: 52 Champion steering wheel removal

[brian6373]

Hi all! I was working on a friends 52 Champion today, his low reverse is not engaging at the shifter on the 3 speed column shifter, so the jacket and shifter control need to come out. From the picture in the shop manual it looks like I need a special tool to remove the steering wheel. I very gently tried to use a couple of different pullers but that wasn't happening. The steering wheel appears brittle and is already cracked in the hub-to-spoke area, I don't want to make it worse. Does anybody know where I might get one of these special tools, or what a good substitute might be? In the picture the tool looks like a bearing spreader.

Thanks,
Brian

[Michidan]

I cannot help with the special tool, I will just say that I've pulled a lot of wheels and my 52 Champion was the hardest one to remove I ever encountered. I tried a couple different arrangements of pullers and still pretty much destroyed the thing. I figured on using a different wheel anyway, but it was still a bummer. Proceed with caution.

[brngarage]

I don't know if it will work on a '52 Champion, but I bought a a puller from Studebaker International that worked great on my '53 Commander, when other ones wouldn't work at all.