Re: 95 Monte steering column disassemble

I've been in and out of more steering columns than I want to think
about. They are not necessarily straight forward either.

By '95 Monte I assume you mean Monte Carlo. I'm not a small car expert
having spent my entire career on pickup trucks. But a steering column is
a steering column.

And you must have an airbag!

I'm really glad I cruised through this group because you guys all made
me laugh. 

And you my friend, made me think of a professional Mercedes technician I
was in school with a few years ago. He told me a story and we laughed
our asses off.

But pay attention, because this could happen to you! And he was a real
professional working on $100,000 Mercedes.

To make a long story short, we were all drinking some coffee on a break
and standing around discussing our various screw-ups and each one in
turn telling a funny story on ourselves. 

I told them how I had to replace a brand new battery when I went to
install the cables on a set of parallel batteries and I absentmindedly
went from negative to positive because I was also used to working on 24
volt series batteries, and suddenly there was a huge arc and I burned
off one of the terminals. 

I said thank God I can cover my own mistakes without the whole world
knowing about them. 

Then this Mercedes tech says to me how lucky I am to be in fleet
service, because I don't have to explain a mistake to a customer who
owns a $100,000 vehicle, and why it will be a week or so before he can
get his vehicle back. 

So he then proceeds to tell us this horror story of how he's working on
this brand new $100,000 Mercedes which came in with a driveability
problem, and while he's working on it, he hears this explosion, and when
he looks up, the airbag was in the back seat. 

He told us he was never so embarrassed in his life. Of course the dealer
gave the customer a loaner Mercedes and picked up the cost for a new
airbag, which is a lot of money on a Mercedes. 

You know they don't repack them like a parachute. lol. It's not so
simple.

The point is, it isn't just a sensor in the front end that sets off the
air bag! If the computer gets false information through an errant arc,
the computer MAY think the car has crashed, and try to save the
occupant's life.

So, I have this vision of you out there in the garage, or in the
driveway, setting that damn airbag off. 

Steering columns are more complicated than you think. You need a step by
step factory manual. 

You will probably need a puller. Just because there's a big nut holding
the steering wheel on, doesn't mean it slides on and off. It's pressed
on. 

You will probably have to take the lock set out, and not bugger up the
plastic pieces in the process. And unlike a car thief, you will want to
take the lock set out without damage to your vehicle.

Once you get all that off, remember every step of the way all the small
wiring and where all the little screws and plastic rivets go, and how it
goes in and around so you can put it back the same way. 

Lest you fix the turn signals and the lights and horn, or cruise control
no longer work.

Don't laugh. I had to take one apart twice one time because of a missed
connection. It's just amazing how much stuff they have packed into that
nightmare under the steering wheel. 

The first thing you always do is disconnect the ~negative~ cable from
the battery. Anyone who tells you to take the positive cable off first,
is a complete idiot! Period!

Leave the positive cable alone, just remove the negative. Make sure
everything is turned off and the doors are closed when you take off the
cable.

Lastly if you're intent on going at it on your own, remember my personal
old saying about working on, or in dashes, steering wheels, or anywhere
inside a modern vehicle.

You only need to know three things to work inside a modern vehicle. 

Patience! Patience! Patience! 

And you're 90% of the way there. lol. 

Bottom line. Take it to Mr. Goodwrench!