Camping this weekend, one of the bolts holding the aftermarket steering wheel to the splined adaptor fell off.

I was shocked to say the least. The other 2 bolts are loose and this steering wheel has been on this truck for over 3 years.

The noise was most noticable going straight on the trails. When turning, the wheel would just ride against the bolts but straight all the rocks and ruts cause little vibrations and stresses in the steering and holding the wheel straight just allows for some banging in there.

The popping sound was a very slight left and right movement of the wheel.

My problem was that I don't carry an allen wrench set to get the wheel out of the way and get to the bolts holding the two together. I am going to start carrying allens from now on.

I used some loc-tite this time.
Don't buy an APC? steering wheel. This one's cover is falling apart at the stitches.

 

Man, what a bummer! I think we're in the same spot now- always want a full set of tools on hand JIC.

Did you get it fixed at least?

 

Yeah, I bought another allen set to carry w/all the time. And the loc-tite should keep this from happening again. No damage to the mounting hardware fortunately.

It was a little scary driving home at 70 knowing the steering wheel isn't firmly attached.
Drove to the first parts house I saw for the allen set.