a bunch of tips

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MercuryMac

Builder Junky!
Joined
Jan 18, 2013
Messages
4,919
Location
Northern Alberta, Canada.
Here are two jacknife tips. Neither one is hot wiring your starter solenoid. One, if you can get the plastic lid off your rattle can paint bomb, successfully, the first time, get out your jacknife and cut a slit in the inner circle like [pic 1]. It will go back on easily ,stay on, and pop back off nicely.
Two, if you are trying to put a nut on a short bolt that you can't reach the head of, you can whip out your jacknife and install the blade into the furthest thread that you can see, from your end of the bolt. Your knife will hold the bolt solid until you can get the nut started on. [pic 2]
 

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107-0728_IMG.jpg[/ATTACH][/ATTACH]Putting a grease nipple in a U-joint or any cramped, out of the way place can be trying. I've got lucky sometimes useing this trick. Put a few O-rings in your deep socket and push the grease nipple into them. The O-rings hold the nipple in the socket and also keep it from sliding in too far so you can't get the nipple to start in the threads.
 

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rust beater.

When taking out old brake line fittings, you can use up a lot of Rolaids. Try to spray a penetrating oil on the fittings two or three days before you start wrenching. Because you're probably going to twist the brakeline off anyhow, you should save a lot of time and just cut it off, then you can put a six point socket on the fitting and twist till your heart's content.
 

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If you need to bring some tin out quite a ways without putting even more dings in it, get a soccer ball, let the air out of it by inserting a blow-up needle, stuff it in the position to press where you think it'll do the most good, blow up the ball, and with a body hammer tap on the other side of the popped out tin where the bends were. Remember to stop pouring the air into the ball when the doorskin pops out or you'll be going back to store to replace the kids soccer ball.
 

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Put a couple in my "memory bank"....

Good stuff MM......I hardly screw with rusted brake lines....follow your method....cut, remove replumb....thanks for sharing....
 
tips

Thanks Guys for the positive comments, but you'll just encourage me to keep on doing this.This tip will have pictures that are bigger than you usually will have to deal with, but they're better pictures. The principal is usable. If you have a broken off bolt or a seized in bolt that has no way of getting a good hold of it anymore, you can weld a thick washer on the the part that you see. The welding rod will fit down inside the washer and nicely weld the washers ID to the stud. The heat of welding will break up some of the rust that's holding the bolt in there. Now, weld a big nut onto the washer around the OD. Let the whole thing cool. The heating will make the broken bolt try to expand in the hole [it can only expand lengthways because it's constricted by the female threads],breaking up some rust. When you let it cool the bolt will shrink, breaking up more rust. Put a wrench on the welded nut and turn her out.
 

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Whytesmoke, wow, a neighbour. Narrow northern Alberta down a bit, OK. I'm from south west of Grande Prairie. The trouble with my rides is that I have lots and lots of "befores" and not enough "afters", so I have to keep plugging along tinkering.
O.K. Guys have you taken a waterpump pulley off of a flat head water pump yet? Successfully? I'm not talking about doin' it with a big ball peen hammer and then going and finding another pulley. I made a pulley "punch" or driver out of pipe and after heating up the hub of the pulley a lot I put the punch in from the back of the pulley and hammered it off. It seems like the pulley was 10 thousandths smaller than the waterpump shaft, then rusted on for 60 years and the thin cast iron pulley has deteriorated integrally for about sixty years.:eek::mad:
 

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Nice!

I have tried that with just the nuts and could never get a good enough weld...Now I know the secret!

I was going to say that if you want to save the brake line heat up the fitting.Not only is the fitting rusted into the cylinder it's also rusted to the line.
Most of time I could get the fitting to pop loose from the cylinder but not the line with penetrant... propane torch doesn't get hot enough. I've had no luck with that but the oxy/acet. torch and a dull red glow always works.
 
Hi Torch. I wish I'd said that. You usually can get the fitting turning in the wheel cylinder, only to find out that the brake line is rusted into the fitting and is half twisted off by the time you stop fiddling around. I've never tried the heat trick on them but it sure works on everything else. Thank you.
Keep on tinkering.
 
general tech with a tweek

Hi Guys, This undoing trick is old hat to most of you, except for my weird little twist in the middle. When you've bored out your broken off bolt and hammered in the square easy-out as far as you dare, you've broken up some of the rust glueing the threads together. The thin walls of what's left of the broken stud or pipe will be forced outwards at the corners of the easy-out. causing the threads to stick together more. My twist to this tech practice, is now tap the easy-out side-ways all the way around, with out breaking the easy-out off. When you hammered the easy-out in, you set the flutes nicely, cut little troughs for them. Now you tap them side-ways to loosen them up a bit and unjamb the stud walls in the female threads. You might be able to turn the easy-out and broken stud out now. I lost the picture of hammering side-ways but you guys will be able to imagine that.
 

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It works!!!

Your tip for welding the washer onto the broken stud, THEN the nut worked great! Now I'm looking for something to use the neighbor kids soccer ball on.[ddd
 
tool use

Here's a brass hammer. Some of you will think of it as a tool to bash sensitive things that you don't want to mushroom. Well, O.K., but here's some more uses. The brass makes a good heat sink and weld stopper if your going to weld up a hole in something. The handle on it keeps your hand away from the action, which can be a good thing. Then again, the hammer makes a nice brass drift, with a handle, also keeping your hand away from the action.
 

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