The other day i had to take my steering wheel cowl off (again) to solder a wire on the turn signal circuit board.

somehow I lost the screw that holds the cowl on. This started a search for a replacement. Lot's of screws from my workbench were close but not quite right.

For the record, this comes up often enough, the steering wheel cowl use 4m screws.

with it disassembled I took a look at the mechanism. I can't count how many times I spent way too long trying to align the cowl right above their screw receptacle for assembly.

I decided to make it easier.

upper cowl - steering structure provides 3 unthreaded holes for screw to enter from the bottom into the threaded receptacles molded into the plastic upper cowl. I toyed with the idea of using an extra long screw so I could get to it easily from underneath. No joy, the area directly under the interested holes is blocked by other protrusions. I decided to continue to leave the cowl in place without screws, which works just fine when it's supported by the lower cowl.

Lower cowl - there are threaded receptacles for its screws. I took a 3/4 inch long threaded rod made from a 4mm screw (more on that later) and threaded it into the steering wheel from below.

As soon as the top of the threaded rod started to protrude, I grabbed a long nose pliers and placed a 4mm nut above it. Once the rod twirled into the nut, I grabbed a 4mm open end wrench and torqued down on the nut. Now the opposing pressure from the nut and steering wheel threads holds the threaded rod in place.

Did same for the other hole.

well I took the lower cowl and test fitted - it works beautifully . Though as i used a ratchet wrench to tighten the 4mm nut, I thought to myself, it will be just as hard to find a 4mm ratchet next time as it was to align this baby.

I fixed that. First let me describe how to "get" 4mm threaded rods.

I purchased a bag of 3/4 inch long 4m bolts with a phillips head. I decided to cut the head off with a hack saw (Only takes 70 strokes). But let me give you a heads up about that.

you need to prevent the screw from turning under the hacksaw strokes. Do not bother to clamp down on the threads with a vice grip - it destroys the threads.

take two 4m nuts and thread them on. Move the top one up leaving just enough room for the hacksaw blade. Then move the bottom nut up to the top one. Tighten them against each other.

cut the head off (don't lose the head). Move the lower nut backwards. Put a new nut on below the lower nut, torque them together. Vice grips on the lower 2 nuts, ratchet on the top nut. Unscrew the top nut. As you do it will clean the threads for your installation.

Now back to best way to secure the lower cowl. I found that 10-20 nut's holes are larger than the 4m threaded rod. I stacked 2 of these nuts and super glued together. Then I centered a 4m nut on them and super glued it in place.

I grabbed one of the detached phillips heads and glued it to the 10-20 nut on the other side. So now you have a sandwich: 4mm nut/10-20 nut/10-20 nut/phillips head. (I will post a photo of finished product shortly)

I threaded it on to the lower cowl, securing it in place with a good old phillips screw driver. Super easy, super effective!

in case you wonder, no nothing protrudes from the lower cowl screw holes. I'll never have to align the piece to get it on again!

it took me a while to do, but that was a bit of inventing as i worked. I bet with the instructions one could do it in 20minutes.

John

Upper cowl's holes.


Turning screw into threaded rod.


Here is where the threaded rod goes


Rod in place, ready to torque down


Picture of screw size and type

 

If any One would like to see a photo of the sandwiched phillips head nut assembly, just say so.

I wanted to include it but got myself lost trying to find it on Google one drive. I can surely do it, just not sure if worthwhile.