Edson wheel removal from pedestal

[ambianceack]

trying to remove the ss 6-spoke wheel from the pedestal to replace raymarine autohelm wheelpilot. The wheel nut is easily removed but the metal cover does not want to move. any thoughts on how to remove the cover to the wheel hub?

Thanks in advance!

[erps]

Our previous boat had a wheel pilot with an external belt drive. It was pretty easy to take the wheel off to get it out of the way while anchored. Remove nut, slide wheel off then bump into steering shaft with clean shorts on and get a big grease spot on them.

Our current boat has a wheel pilot where the motor and belt are all contained in a plastic case. The first time I took the wheel off, I was worried about breaking something, because the wheel just didn't slide off like the other boat. I don't know how your wheel pilot is, but on ours, the plastic case that houses the belt and wheel snaps together and kind of snaps apart if you pry on it a bit to separate the two halves. Once you get the case separated, the wheel slides off pretty easy.