MK1 Steering Column Shear Bolts...

Going to take the steering column / tube etc. out.

The 2x shear bolts... references on-line imply you just use brute force to rotate them loose.

If that's what it takes, fair enough, but wanted to ask if there's a better alternative / clever trick someone knows?

 

Two options..

A sharp centre punch and a few hammer taps should start it turning
or hacksaw a slot in the head and then use a screwdriver.

 

Cheers... One of them I could just about get a punch in from the back and use the slot you can maybe see in one of my images (and better in Hoffmans below) for purchase and begin to drive it around, the same slot on the other bolt was just in the wrong place so resorted to the punch from the front, Knuckle skin's very over rated I think.

That's a separate washer with a peculiar shoulder and quite deep, not part of the bolt... looks like you'll need it again as new bolts don't seem to include one, need to be careful not to chew them up.

 

tig another bolt shank onto it. magic. or drill em out, they are soft
Jon

 

Flat belt sander is another way

 

Cheers, both now out.

Like Jon says these are soft metal, presumably so they fail in a controlled way in a collision.

Good to highlight in case in the past they've been removed / replaced with regular bolts instead.

 

Just by chance there was someone on the MK1OC forum with an unrelated query about their steering column that's on a '88 Cabriolet.

Upshot is I now know my '83 set up is quite different with the shaft itself essentially being a solid bar, not the 2x piece telescopic design of that later car.

Presumabably the shear bolts are an earlier attempt to have the steering wheel / solid column collapse in the event of an impact, whereas the later design appears to do away with those bolts, replacing the means of failure with a collapsing sliding shaft.

Question is... could I straight swap my arguably less safe solid bar / shear bolt setup with the marginally better later telescopic design?

 

Looks like 7Zap's down again so can't go back and look, though the schematic for the '88 Cabby's steering column wasn't anything like what it should be anyhow and not much use.

Was relying on inter-web images and that's always dodgy, no way of knowing if they're right or if something has been changed out over the years.

Any I saw showed the shear bolts no longer appeared to be in place for that age of Cabby which was why I maybe wrongly thought the telescopic column had replaced rather than supplemented them.

I'm maybe also wrongly thinking the 'safety' measures were to prevent getting the column pushed up into your chest in an impact rather than going down when you hit it... lovely thought!

Shear bolts would probably have limited effect stopping you getting speared and things perhaps moved on with the collapsible columns.

Would the telescopic column maybe need to be solidly fixed at the top so that it could work by allowing the upward force something to push against?

Shear bolts parting company would maybe prevent it collapsing?

Just guessing, old tech and neithers a great solution, scary thought.

 

Think I'll just stick with what's there, at least it's how it was supposed to be!

Just noticed my set up has only provision for the 2 x shear bolts and nothing else (though the bulkhead metal work it attaches to has seperate brackets for those and two others that aren't used) whereas the Cabby has 4 x tabs on it's column.

Not much to it.

 

Finally found the parts on the MPF for the MK1 Steering, amazing how often you have to resist the urge to pull the image larger with your fingers or right click on the glass plate... digital age has me conditioned.

Good news is it's exactly the same schematic as 7Zap so if that ever disappears for good should be still OK.

Bad news is it doesn't help us here any.

The shear bolt is at No.15.

Check out No.24 (M8x22 socket head bolt - N 0147091)

Previously I had that down as the single one that holds the ignition barrel on but 7Zap states you need two, plus they are pictured in the general area of the 2x redundant captive nuts on my bulkhead.

Plot thickens.





Got a new bottom bearing (No.9) from Heritage as they were the cheapest (with CGTI members discount - blatant plug), and surprised to see it's a genuine VW part that arrived.

Made by 'Rollax' and 'W.Germany' still cast on it, must be old tooling.

Used to make a point of seeing who made what bits I found on the MK2 as it was a pretty original car still with most of it's factory kit on.

Rollax made things like the clutch release bearing from memory, likely other stuff to.

 

No.7 does look to be my inner shaft, but No.14 differs... there's no second bracket with the lower set of holes on mine (even if the bulkhead does have a corresponding bracket it would attach to), nor No.17 which I think is a plastic sheath of sorts.

Found a few more MPF sheets for the MK1 Golf covering right back to 1976.

Starting to get the hang of navigating them, there's an idex on each page, doh!

For the steering column at any rate, everything is just the same schematics and mainly LHD mentioned against the part numbers.

I think most of my sheets for the MK1 date from around 1997, so like your ETKA they probably contain the later updated info.

There's some older sheets for other models, the Beetle and Iltis for example!