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Skyline R34 Remove & Replace Steering Wheel & Airbag & Resetting Airbag Alarm

Les000X

By Les000X,
in Tutorials / DIY / FAQ

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GTSBoy Grand Master

GTSBoy

Posted
Posted

The wheel has splines. The shaft has splines. If you turn the wheel, the shaft turns the same number of degrees. If you take the wheel off and then rotate the shaft, then so long as you rotate the wheel to the same angle before you put it back on, then there is no change in the relationship between the wheel and the shaft, so nothing changes.

The easiest way to do this is with a little alignment mark on the end of the shaft running onto the wheel hub.

The only "release" described in the method is:

  1. Unlock the steering height angle adjuster, if needed, to allow the column shroud to be removed (again, if needed),
  2. Unlock the ignition barrel lock so the wheel can rotate. This is probably to prevent accidentally breaking the lock when you're beating the shit out of the wheel trying to get it to come off the spline.

Neither of those things will allow some sort of random repositioning of all the components in the steering column so that you now suddenly have your wheels facing off to a random side or pointing in different directions. The steering column is still rigidly connected to the rack. Put a pair of vice grips on the splines and you'll be able to steer the car (and get a massive defect and possibly die when you impale yourself on the shaft in the inevitable crash).

 

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GTSBoy
GTSBoy

The wheel has splines. The shaft has splines. If you turn the wheel, the shaft turns the same number of degrees. If you take the wheel off and then rotate the shaft, then so long as you rotate the whe

Kinkstaah
Kinkstaah

Just keep in mind if you have a R34 Series 2, the airbag reset procedure is actually that of the V35, not the R34 as described in the R34 Workshop manual. Just cause Nissan things.

GTSBoy
GTSBoy

A good street alignment will generally run a slightly different toe angle left to right, or more often it is done with caster, to make the car want to climb up the camber of a typical 2 lane road. For

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silviaz Experienced

silviaz

Posted
Posted
7 hours ago, GTSBoy said:

The wheel has splines. The shaft has splines. If you turn the wheel, the shaft turns the same number of degrees. If you take the wheel off and then rotate the shaft, then so long as you rotate the wheel to the same angle before you put it back on, then there is no change in the relationship between the wheel and the shaft, so nothing changes.

The easiest way to do this is with a little alignment mark on the end of the shaft running onto the wheel hub.

The only "release" described in the method is:

  1. Unlock the steering height angle adjuster, if needed, to allow the column shroud to be removed (again, if needed),
  2. Unlock the ignition barrel lock so the wheel can rotate. This is probably to prevent accidentally breaking the lock when you're beating the shit out of the wheel trying to get it to come off the spline.

Neither of those things will allow some sort of random repositioning of all the components in the steering column so that you now suddenly have your wheels facing off to a random side or pointing in different directions. The steering column is still rigidly connected to the rack. Put a pair of vice grips on the splines and you'll be able to steer the car (and get a massive defect and possibly die when you impale yourself on the shaft in the inevitable crash).

 

Ah ok, i think i get what you mean. thanks

silviaz Experienced

silviaz

Posted
Posted (edited)
8 hours ago, GTSBoy said:

The wheel has splines. The shaft has splines. If you turn the wheel, the shaft turns the same number of degrees. If you take the wheel off and then rotate the shaft, then so long as you rotate the wheel to the same angle before you put it back on, then there is no change in the relationship between the wheel and the shaft, so nothing changes.

The easiest way to do this is with a little alignment mark on the end of the shaft running onto the wheel hub.

The only "release" described in the method is:

  1. Unlock the steering height angle adjuster, if needed, to allow the column shroud to be removed (again, if needed),
  2. Unlock the ignition barrel lock so the wheel can rotate. This is probably to prevent accidentally breaking the lock when you're beating the shit out of the wheel trying to get it to come off the spline.

Neither of those things will allow some sort of random repositioning of all the components in the steering column so that you now suddenly have your wheels facing off to a random side or pointing in different directions. The steering column is still rigidly connected to the rack. Put a pair of vice grips on the splines and you'll be able to steer the car (and get a massive defect and possibly die when you impale yourself on the shaft in the inevitable crash).

 

Correct me if I'm wrong but one thing you didn't take into account was the clockspring as it's not meant to be turned. Or is the idea if the wheel is already turned, we just put the nut back on, and then straighten out the wheel to feed the clockspring wires through? If that's the case, I'm not sure if the clockspring spins as you turn the wheel. I imagine not otherwise all the copper wires would have ripped off the first time the very first time the wheel is turned, but at the same time I don't see it moving because the connectors stay in one place.

I'm probably overthinking.

Edited by silviaz
silviaz Experienced

silviaz

Posted
Posted
14 hours ago, GTSBoy said:

The front of the clockspring turns with the steering wheel - or more to the point, with the splined shaft. The rear of the clockspring stays mounted to the column (not the shaft, the fixed part of the column).

Ah right, cheers.

Kinkstaah Grand Master

Kinkstaah

Posted
Posted

Just keep in mind if you have a R34 Series 2, the airbag reset procedure is actually that of the V35, not the R34 as described in the R34 Workshop manual.

Just cause Nissan things.

  • Like 2
silviaz Experienced

silviaz

Posted
Posted
20 minutes ago, Kinkstaah said:

Just keep in mind if you have a R34 Series 2, the airbag reset procedure is actually that of the V35, not the R34 as described in the R34 Workshop manual.

Just cause Nissan things.

Ah interesting, good to know. Is series 2 the 1999 model and onwards not 1998?

  • Like 1
silviaz Experienced

silviaz

Posted
Posted
7 hours ago, Kinkstaah said:

Just keep in mind if you have a R34 Series 2, the airbag reset procedure is actually that of the V35, not the R34 as described in the R34 Workshop manual.

Just cause Nissan things.

Do you know if I have my steering wheel disconnected or a week (airbag light will show if I put ignition on) or so if the airbag reset procedure will be harder to do? I did a search on the forum, and seems to be the case. At least with mine since I have an immobiliser I noticed the other day if I put the key on the on position in a short amount of time the alarm chirp, which also might cause me issues.

Lastly, will the airbag light show if I connect the battery terminal with the steering wheel disconnected but don't turn on the ignition? Obviously I won't see it if the ignition is off but my question is when I go to put the steering wheel back on if the light will show because I've had my battery connected.

Kinkstaah Grand Master

Kinkstaah

Posted
Posted
On 1/24/2024 at 2:46 PM, silviaz said:

Ah interesting, good to know. Is series 2 the 1999 model and onwards not 1998?

Series 2 is Aug 2000 onwards. You'd know if you have one, cause a lot of stupid shit is mysteriously different (like the airbag reset procedure!)

Having it off for longer wont matter. Lets be real; if the car has been driving around with the airbag light 'on' that circuit is already broken and the airbag is already 'off'.

The procedure will work if you have all the parts and wires lined up right. Sadly I've removed and replaced and swapped a clock spring a couple times now. Once it's all apart it's quite noticeable how simple it is to put together/take apart.

  • Like 1
silviaz Experienced

silviaz

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, Kinkstaah said:

Series 2 is Aug 2000 onwards. You'd know if you have one, cause a lot of stupid shit is mysteriously different (like the airbag reset procedure!)

Having it off for longer wont matter. Lets be real; if the car has been driving around with the airbag light 'on' that circuit is already broken and the airbag is already 'off'.

The procedure will work if you have all the parts and wires lined up right. Sadly I've removed and replaced and swapped a clock spring a couple times now. Once it's all apart it's quite noticeable how simple it is to put together/take apart.

Ah right, thanks for that. What about the above, whether the airbag light will likely show after i put the steering wheel on, if the airbag has previously been is disconnected and the battery is connected but the ignition is off? I guess an easier way to frame the question is, if I do the whole procedure with my battery connected but the ignition off the whole time whether it should show the airabag light?

Kinkstaah Grand Master

Kinkstaah

Posted
Posted

I don't know. I don't think anyone would know. I would however expect that if you remove the clock spring or unplug the airbag at any time, for any reason, you would need to reset the light upon plugging it all back in again.

  • Like 1
silviaz Experienced

silviaz

Posted
Posted (edited)
5 hours ago, Kinkstaah said:

I don't know. I don't think anyone would know. I would however expect that if you remove the clock spring or unplug the airbag at any time, for any reason, you would need to reset the light upon plugging it all back in again.

Ah ok, no worries. I'll take the risk and hopefully if I need to reset it that it's not a pain in the ass.

Edited by silviaz
silviaz Experienced

silviaz

Posted
Posted (edited)

Am I reading this correctly? It's showing the steering wheel nut is only 39nm, which seems quite low. i thought it would be tighter. The sump plug max torque is 39nm which isn't tight.image.thumb.png.2d59de05cf9f5bfbc37719fa3b1a8811.png

Edited by silviaz
silviaz Experienced

silviaz

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, GTSBoy said:

Drag it back off and put it back straight. It'll only take you 2 minutes and the risk of a broken nose.

The problem is that, it's slightly off, the center pin doesn't line up with the spline. This is how it looks now. I can technically make it perfectly center, but the guide pins on the steering wheel and the clockspring it self won't sit in and be flush.

 

I attached the guide pins on the clockspring for reference.

1.jpg

image.png

Kinkstaah Grand Master

Kinkstaah

Posted
Posted

From memory the wheel doesn't sit on the clockspring directly, so you can just remove the wheel, turn it however many angles it's off then put it on the spline again. I know this as I too have put it on one spline out before and gone "Ah everything works, the wheel is just not straight now"

silviaz Experienced

silviaz

Posted
Posted
28 minutes ago, Kinkstaah said:

From memory the wheel doesn't sit on the clockspring directly, so you can just remove the wheel, turn it however many angles it's off then put it on the spline again. I know this as I too have put it on one spline out before and gone "Ah everything works, the wheel is just not straight now"

Ah do you mean the 3 notches on the steering wheel and the clockspring don't need to line up? If that's the case, somehow I just got a weird scenario where i didn't align it and the steering wheel sits flush whereas before I had to have it aligned. My steering wheel is still crooked but just in the other direction. I already had a wheel alignment but I wonder if it's so off because the spline should be in the center if I'm not mistaken.

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