removing steering wheel/airbag

An easy question for all you experts out there. I've just bought a leather steering wheel and matching airbag off eBay and obviously want to fit it when it arrives. Any tips on how to remove the existing one without it blowing up in my face??!!!!

There is a hole at each side of the back of the steering wheel. In the hole is a hex screw, undo these (it is a bit of a nightmare getting a hex tool which fits) and then the centre of the steering wheel will come off (I think it has a couple of cables attached for the airbag & horn buttons). Now you can see a bolt which holds the steering wheel to the shaft. Undo the bolt and pull the steering wheel off the shaft, which is usually very stiff!

Be very careful to not smash yourself in the face with the steering wheel when it eventually slides off the shaft

Leave the bolt/nut on by a few threads to, as he says, stop smashing your face in.

Speaking from experience with a MkII Escort wheel years ago. Bloody hurt and made a mess of the interior. Blood everywhere!!! LoL!

Probably worth disconnecting the battery 30 mins before you start messing with the airbag. Just in case!

Got the new (well, secondhand) steering wheel today, so had a go at swapping them over. All went pretty smoothly - here's a few notes for anyone else wanting to do the same;

1. on the right hand side of the wheel there is small round hole giving access to a bolt. The bolt is undone with a T30 torx bit
2. on the left hand side of the wheel is a small plastic cover. Gently prise it out and you'll see another T30 torx bolt to undo.
3. Once undone I then removed the white plastic bolt retainer - this allows the wheel centre/airbag to be easily removed
4. unplug the airbag connector and horn switch connector
5. the steering wheel bolt is undone with a 17mm socket
6. the steering wheel didn't take much persuasion to come off
7. refitting is, as they say in the manuals, the reverse of removing

The only small problem I had is that the nice matching black wheel centre/airbag has a different connector for the airbag :evil: Never mind, I just put the original grey one back on for now 'cos I didn't fancy messing around with the airbag wiring so the little jimny is sporting a lovely two tone effect :laugh: Maybe there's an easy to apply colourfast black dye I could use?

Now the steering wheel is sorted, the gearknob is next on the list once I figure out how to take the old one off - any pointers???