Centering steering wheel to steering wheel/column

Even I know the title is confusing. Just seems no matter how I worded it in a search, both parts are called steering wheel.

I decided, since I had the wheel & column pulled, plus replacing the rack, I would straighten out the column, which somehow, someway ended up askewed left.

I now need to straighten the top part of wheel to meet the bottom. I have directions in my Haynes. I have the wheels straight. Battery disconnected. However I am finding the torx screws hard to turn, so backed off to make sure the Haynes was covering everything. Maybe the screws are simply tighter than I thought they would be.
The steering wheel is locked because the manual did not state to unlock it after disconnecting the battery.
As an aside, I did center the rack.
Am I missing some step or is it I just need to give the screws a little extra

 

If this is what your trying to do.

Your Talking about the Torx screws on the air bag module ??

When you go for your alignment get the tech to center your wheel!

No matter how close you get once the alignment is done it will be off.

That being the case I am lucky enough to have a Great Shop to do alignments

 

Are you trying to center the steering shaft in the hole that passes through the firewall? Or get the wheel straight? If the latter, it's accomplished using the tie rod adjustors during an alignment. If the former, there are a series of slip joints in the steering shaft that need to be all simultaneously adjusted to get the steering shaft to be centered in that hole.

There's one at the top of intermediate No2 shaft (at the steering rack) that needs a bolt loosened to adjust.
There's one at the bottom of universal joint 2 that's free to slide
There's one in the steering column assembly that I believe is free to slide


When I had a non-centered steering shaft, I had the best luck by loosening the column at intermediate no2 shaft, the adjusting the top slip joint while simultaneously doing the one in the steering column assembly. Then tightening everything backup centered.

 

I get that the tie rods are used to center the wheel, however I thought that was if the wheel & column were lined up & the whole assembly down to the rack was off.

 

The no 2 is so not coming out at the pinch bolt. Good idea though.

 

Just tilting on the alignment taking care of this. I mean let’s say I tried to get it close. I turn the wheel which turns the column. Then I go to the tie rods to straighten out the tires. Isn’t the end result that the column is right back where it was?

 

I’ll have to look up a vid on it. Not that I don’t believe you. Just like to understand. Definitely if they can take care of this without my column ending up right back where it was, that’d be great.

 

As far as I could tell an alignment would not have fixed this whilst keeping the column where I had set it. I needed up pulling the steering wheel & got it pretty darned well lined up with the column. In fact when I drove to the alignment shop, i was pretty much dead on. Anyway, to answer my question, I was not missing anything. I just needed to put some more into the torx screws.

 

The alignment shop could have gotten it straight by adjusting the tie rod ends, as long as there were enough threads to compensate. You got it fairly close anyway. Most people are not aware of the clock spring underneath the steering wheel. It’s not going to hurt anything by how far you moved the wheel. The main reason why everything needs to be centered when removing and installing steering components is the clock spring.
The clock spring is basically a coil of ribbon wire that connects the airbag to the stationary column. It can only turn each way but so much. It’s designed to be installed center, turning equally in both directions.

 

I did adjust the clock spring.
It was off to start with. The person I suspect was the one who pulled the steering wheel in the 1st place, put it back with the word “top” at the top.

Curious then, how would they have lined the steering wheel to the column while keeping the column where I had it & keeping the rack centered? I understand somehow through the tie rods, which I do get the basics of for alignments, but how? Not challenging you. Genuinely curious.

 

The threads on the outer tie rod ends wouldn’t be centered anymore. They would wedge the steering wheel straight, by turning it right. Then adjust your outer tie rod ends, out on the passenger side, turning that wheel back to the left, then the driver’s side in, turning it back to the left.
It can be corrected through adjustment, but I do understand what you’re asking. The only way to make sure everything is center is installing it all completely centered, but that’s easily messed up so that’s the reason for the adjustment room. There is some room for error.

 

Count revolutions lock to lock, divide by two. From one lock, turn the wheel that many times. Reinstall wheel straight, get alignment.

 

This is what I did, except I did it via the rack, which then set the column straight. Then reset the clock spring & reinstalled the steering wheel straight. Oh, & first I lined the tires up as straight as I could using string, as I have no proper tools for this.