Chuck, I think there was a post on this somewhat recently. Ours is deliberately loose, I put some axle grease on it when we bought our boat in '98. One of my friends had to use a wheel puller after hours spent trying to get the nut off. Consider yourself lucky. I just got in the habit of tightening/checking it whenever I'm behind the wheel, which is not often.

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I have never removed mine - and the nut never comes loose. If I was to remove it - will I have to mark somehow so that when I reinstall it the king pin will remain in its original position? How do you do this? Is there a key slot on it already?

There is a keyway on the shaft/wheel already.

The nut on mine comes off fairly easily. Even so, I often need to use a wheel puller to get the wheel off. I just keep one on the boat in case I had to get it off quickly.

Perhaps not the best idea....but I wonder if plumbers tape wrapped around the threads could help??

I actually was going to suggest that. I've found it to be a good non-permanent solution for cases just like this one. A small dab of BLUE Loctite would work too, I just wouldn't use too much.

I finally was able to pull out my steering wheel with a puller. I cleaned the dried up oil and covered the surfaces with petroleum jelly and now the wheel slides off easily. The holding nut on my wheel did not come loose as others had complained about theirs coming loose. I now know why the nut comes loose. Check this on your wheel - take the nut off and look a the axle of the wheel while slowly turning the wheel left and right. You will see that there is a looseness between the axle and the wheel introduced by the key holding them together. When the wheel is turned left and right it turns the nut about 1/64" at a time counterclockwise and it becomes continually loose. I do not have a solution for this yet- I hope someone can figure out how to solve this problem. Now I have joined the "loose nut group".

Haro,

It sounds like the woodruff key may be worn allowing this movement. It is a small half moon shaped piece that sits in a cut out on the shaft. I believe that is what is used, it could use a straight key. If you look at the Edison manual it should show this, hopefully it is worn not the shaft or wheel. Woodruff keys are pretty pricey at auto parts stores, you could pay upwards of a dollar on one.