Steering wheel crooked

[FoxTwoX]

Good afternoon everyone! Yes I did use the search function and didnt quite find what I was looking for so if I looked it over and missed it, i do apologize!



The time has come that I am in a good spot financially and otherwise to pickup a festiva and do some minor wrenching. Plus I miss my friend and would love to get a festiva in his honor.
The festiva I looked at the other day seems well kept and in good condition. However the steering wheel is crooked by about 35 degrees, the car drives straight but the steering wheel is not..straight and man that is so annoying to me. How would I go about fixing this? I googled and everything and my non wrenching dum to cars self doesnt know where to start.

Thanks!!!

[ryanprins13]

2 screws on the backside of the steeringwheel hold the centre piece on. Remove them and pull it off. Have your wheels straight, undo the nut, pull wheel off. Put it on straight. Reinstall nut and centre piece

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[Studebaker]

Will take a puller to get wheel off. Can borrow one from parts store. leave nut on but loose till it breaks loose. first time will take about an hour to do. really an easy job.

How much rust does the car have. post pic before buying if you can.

[bhazard]

Does NOT take a puller to get the wheel off. You can beat it off with your bare hands (phrasing ^_^)

[radi8u]

Leave the nut on but back it off some so you can pop the wheel loose by jerking on it. That way it won't smack you in the chops when it comes loose. Also, when reassembling make sure the turn light cancel tabs (or whatever the hell they're called) are lined up properly with the holes they fit in, otherwise you might break them off.
Doh, didn't notice that Studebaker already mentioned leaving the nut on...

[TominMO]

If you pull and reinstall the steering wheel, and it still isn't perfectly straight, then you need to do some adjustment on the tie rods to get it right.

Say it's off about 10 degrees left. You would screw in the passenger-side tie rod to make it a little right, then screw out the driver-side one to make it come back left, to the center.

From there, you would do a wheel alignment as normal, turning both tie rods equally (one in, one out) to preserve the centered steering wheel.

Or just live with it being slightly off, after removing/reinstalling the steering wheel.

[FoxTwoX]

If you pull and reinstall the steering wheel, and it still isn't perfectly straight, then you need to do some adjustment on the tie rods to get it right.

Say it's off about 10 degrees left. You would screw in the passenger-side tie rod to make it a little right, then screw out the driver-side one to make it come back left, to the center.

From there, you would do a wheel alignment as normal, turning both tie rods equally (one in, one out) to preserve the centered steering wheel.

Or just live with it being slightly off, after removing/reinstalling the steering wheel.

I sort of understand? But sort of dont. I've never wrenched on a car before so... I'm pretty ignorant to a lot of that. I've thought about picking up the haynes manual for the festiva.

[WmWatt]

It should be pretty generic. Try a search of the Internet. There are videos out there for all sorts of stuff.