I'm currently replacing my front axle and my steering is disconnected. I'm getting ready to put everything back, but I came into a slight problem. My steering wheel is upside down. I know how to adjust this normally, but with everything disconnected, I do not know which way the steering wheel has turned. Im worried that if I just straighten the wheel out before I do an alignment, I might damage the clockspring. To clarify, if my (upside down) steering wheel has turned left, and I straightened the wheel to the left, I might end up over spinning the clockspring and breaking it when I drive. Is there anyway to determine the orientation of the wheel/clockspring without taking the clockspring out? I read on another thread that the clockspring can spin twice the amount of the actual turn radius. I backed the Jeep in straight before I started working on it, so the steering wheel was probably only turned 180 degrees at max, but I still need to determine which direction because I don't have a connected axle to base my judgement off of.

Thank you all, I hope my question makes sense.

 

I am guessing here but thinking the only thing that does matter is the clockspring.
If the wheels are straight and you reconnect the steering wheel with it being straight you would be OK?
That is a question above. LOL.
So if so thinking all that needs to be done is recenter the clockspring.

 

I think I figured it out. I found another forum saying you can find the middle of the wheel just by turning it until it stops and counting the number of turns. Steering wheel is now in the middle position and everything seems okay, no airbag light. Thank you