Steering wheel conclusion

[Joe Elliott <jee@domain.elided>]

After spending a couple of hours yesterday morning making a last ditch 
effort to remove my steering wheel (I went to the hardware store to buy a 
3/8" tap, only to be told that they didn't have 5" long 3/8" Grade 8 bolts, 
so I went to another hardware store for bolts, only to get home and 
discover that the new tap was too big for my tap handle, so I went back 
into town to borrow a bigger handle from a friend, then went home, tapped 
my holes, and discovered that the bigger bolts wouldn't fit in the puller I 
borrowed, so I went back into town to AutoZone to borrow a puller there 
which didn't have a long enough shaft to fit the GTV6 wheel, but I made 
that fit anyway) which involved banging on an already-pretty-tight puller 
with an impact wrench (4 lb. hand sledge being the hammer of choice).  That 
unfortunately didn't do much besides aggravating my pain-prone right wrist. 
But I didn't strip the new 3/8" holes though, so I bit the bullet and 
decided to pay professionals to take my wheel off.  (Ironically, it was 
just last Friday that I paid my parents the last of a multithousand dollar 
Alfa-related debt that began when I was 16 and I paid professionals to 
replace my transmission.)  Using my 3/8" holes and Grade 8 bolts, the crew 
at European Auto Specialists in Cincinnati got my wheel off in half an hour 
using a bigass gear puller thingy.  So I went home and installed my new 
column switch and put a relay on the low beam circuit.  But it seems as 
though the relay I found lying around my house isn't your average relay. 
Now it was late, and my wrist was killing me, so maybe I just wired it 
wrong, because I know I tested it before.  But it was taller than normal 
relays, and said "Saab" on it...  Anyway, it seems as though once the coil 
circuit was closed once, opening it didn't matter, the headlight circuit 
seemed to stay closed.  That's obviously no good so I found the cheap-ass 
Westinghouse relay that used to light up my "BRAKE" warning light for 5 
seconds when I started the car, and put that on there for the time being. 
It will probably fail tonight and kill me.  I just wish I'd taken the car 
to the pros for steering wheel removal before I killed my bad wrist banging 
on it.  This is the worst it's been since the summer before I started high 
school....and it seems that all my favorite activities (LHD cars, 
computers, etc) require heavy use of my right wrist.  This sucks.  I might 
not be typing too much more for the Digest this week... Anyway, many thanks 
to those who sold me parts, lent me tools, and provided advice.  I'm still 
trying to get used to this whole "automatic turn signal cancellation" 
thing.  ;-)

Joe Elliott
'82 GTV6
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