Volkswagen Polo 1982 - What Size Socket for Steering Wheel ?

snipped-for-privacy@hotpop.deletethisbit.co.uk (Mark Hobley) realised it was Tue,

Measure across the flats of the nut with a caliper. That's the size you need.

I'd guess 32mm. Either that or one size larger than the largest socket you own. That is generally how it works for me.

Fraser

unless it's a ford then it's a the size between the most common socket sizes.

The botls on the saphie cosworth exhaust manifold seem to be of the size..

"17mm and a few seconds work on the socket with an angel grinder"

I have two of these sockets if anyone needs them :o)

its about a 22 or 24, you are cheapest off to buy a low quality set of sockets anyway, rather than one at a time

mrcheerful

IIRC 25mm or 27mm

Ok, I bought a 15/16ths from Halfords.

Regards,

Mark.

snipped-for-privacy@hotpop.deletethisbit.co.uk (Mark Hobley) realised it was Tue,

Brilliant. That's bound to fit the steering wheel nut on a 1982 Volkswagen...

Also sprach Yippee :-

It's less than a two tenths of a millimeter short of 24mm.

Once you do find the right size (which I don't know myself) don't undo it the whole way like I did once on my car. Hurts like hell smashing yourself in the face with a steering wheel.

Guy King realised it was Tue, 23 Nov 2004

Oh awright then, it'll do. But it doesn't *fit*, does it?

My past experiences suggest that the nut is uneccesary in the first place. When the nut is removed the steering wheel needs a great deal of persuasion to detach itself from the steering column... THAT'S when it smacks you in the face...

Simon H

I've had a few VW wheels off and they have all come away relatively easily, the problems have always been in removing the nut as VW paint them once they are on. You need a long bar and 2 people one to hold the wheel and the other to jump up and down on the end of the bar. Oh and make sure to have the ignition on enough to remove the steering lock or you may break it.

Also sprach Yippee :-

Probably better than many! It'll be nice and snug.

The message from Guy King contains these words:

Funnily enough I had much the same problem today. I needed a socket to fit Zetor tractor wheel nuts which I measured as 24mm. My metric sockets only go as far as 22mm so I took a 15/15ths socket and a 1/2" Whitworth socket to check for size. The AF socket was a very tight fit on the unrusted nuts but would need some persuasion to go on the rusty ones. The Whit socket was a looser fit but just maybe not too loose. I still need to find a length of pipe to extend my tommy bar so I don't yet know what will happen when I lean on it.

Anyone happen to know what the actual width of a 1/2" Whitworth nut is?

The message from Allan Bennett contains these words:

That's less than 15/16ths (23.8125mm) so the Whitworth socket shouldn't have gone on. According to my reference book (which ignores obsolete systems) M16 is a straight 24mm across flats so the nuts shouldn't be smaller than nominal size.

1/2 BSW to BS916 = 0.820/0.800"

Andy

The message from "Andy Vines" contains these words:

Thanks but .82" is 20.828mm which I presume must be 7/16th BSW/1/2 BSF