Ontopic The new car-seching thread

Domon said:
Putting a class III hitch on the van this week. For now its just for a bike rack, but itll be nice to have towing capability, albeit only up to 3500lbs
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this went.... interestingly.

I have a hitch now, that is fine for a bike rack, but needs to have the last 1/4 of it installed for anything else :D

Last bolt hole of the 5 was galled with something. Its a threaded hole with a weld-nut. Cleaned out the others just fine with a wire brush and some pb blaster. Bigass 3/4 bolts threaded in just fine with a 3/8s socket wrench

Last bolt hole, not so much. Clean it out, try thread the bolt, it jams at about 1/3rd installed. take it out, clean again, etc. No dice.

Pull out the 12-1.25 tap. Its wayyyy to aggressive and the risk of cross threading due to icky starting threads is too high, stop.

Go get my thread cleaner set that I bought on @Mr. Argumentor 's recommendation a bit back to try that instead.

Amazon product ASIN B00DTEFSWY
Thread it it, it engaged the threads well and i start to work it back and forward, until i hit that same point, and then the motherfucker just snaps right off. Its a nice coating of good looking steel on the outside, and goddamn pot metal on the inside. I really wasnt applying that much force to it.

So i have 1 of 5 bolt holes that now functionally has a tap jammed in it :p gotta have to get it drilled out at some point.

Im guessing there was either a rock jammed in the threads, or the threads had weld-spatter on em from the weld nut install.
 
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Domon said:
this went.... interestingly.

I have a hitch now, that is fine for a bike rack, but needs to have the last 1/4 of it installed for anything else :D

Last bolt hole of the 5 was galled with something. Its a threaded hole with a weld-nut. Cleaned out the others just fine with a wire brush and some pb blaster. Bigass 3/4 bolts threaded in just fine with a 3/8s socket wrench

Last bolt hole, not so much. Clean it out, try thread the bolt, it jams at about 1/3rd installed. take it out, clean again, etc. No dice.

Pull out the 12-1.25 tap. Its wayyyy to aggressive and the risk of cross threading due to icky starting threads is too high, stop.

Go get my thread cleaner set that I bought on @Mr. Argumentor 's recommendation a bit back to try that instead.

Amazon product ASIN B00DTEFSWY
Thread it it, it engaged the threads well and i start to work it back and forward, until i hit that same point, and then the motherfucker just snaps right off. Its a nice coating of good looking steel on the outside, and goddamn pot metal on the inside. I really wasnt applying that much force to it.

So i have 1 of 5 bolt holes that now functionally has a tap jammed in it :p gotta have to get it drilled out at some point.

Im guessing there was either a rock jammed in the threads, or the threads had weld-spatter on em from the weld nut install.
Click to expand...
ugh, drilling taps is the worst.

If you can see it at all, try unthreading it with a pick. I've had good luck with that, especially after heating up the hole first.
 
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Jehannum said:
ugh, drilling taps is the worst.

If you can see it at all, try unthreading it with a pick. I've had good luck with that, especially after heating up the hole first.
Click to expand...
yeah, first thing i did was torch the hole.

Get a pick up in the flute relief and then tap on it sideways?
 
like i said, its fine for now, it holds the bike rack with no problems, but i wouldnt want someone down the road to try to actually tow something with it and have a catastrophic failure.
 
Domon said:
this went.... interestingly.

I have a hitch now, that is fine for a bike rack, but needs to have the last 1/4 of it installed for anything else :D

Last bolt hole of the 5 was galled with something. Its a threaded hole with a weld-nut. Cleaned out the others just fine with a wire brush and some pb blaster. Bigass 3/4 bolts threaded in just fine with a 3/8s socket wrench

Last bolt hole, not so much. Clean it out, try thread the bolt, it jams at about 1/3rd installed. take it out, clean again, etc. No dice.

Pull out the 12-1.25 tap. Its wayyyy to aggressive and the risk of cross threading due to icky starting threads is too high, stop.

Go get my thread cleaner set that I bought on @Mr. Argumentor 's recommendation a bit back to try that instead.

Amazon product ASIN B00DTEFSWY
Thread it it, it engaged the threads well and i start to work it back and forward, until i hit that same point, and then the motherfucker just snaps right off. Its a nice coating of good looking steel on the outside, and goddamn pot metal on the inside. I really wasnt applying that much force to it.

So i have 1 of 5 bolt holes that now functionally has a tap jammed in it :p gotta have to get it drilled out at some point.

Im guessing there was either a rock jammed in the threads, or the threads had weld-spatter on em from the weld nut install.
Click to expand...

Any way to see what's in the hole?
After you get the broken piece out it sounds like a job for one of @Mr. Argumentor 's plastic sleeves. Center a drill bit in there that just misses the existing threads then follow that with the tap.

Likely won't be enough meat left in the weld nut to just ream it out and go up a size.
 
HipHugHer said:
Any way to see what's in the hole?
After you get the broken piece out it sounds like a job for one of @Mr. Argumentor 's plastic sleeves. Center a drill bit in there that just misses the existing threads then follow that with the tap.

Likely won't be enough meat left in the weld nut to just ream it out and go up a size.
Click to expand...
The problem is that he'll be going into a super hard tap. Not like going through a bolt at all.
 
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Jehannum said:
The problem is that he'll be going into a super hard tap. Not like going through a bolt at all.
Click to expand...
im guessing these thread cleaners arent quite as hard as a tap, but theyre probably harder than a bolt. I could sacrifice one and try to drill it on the drill press with a nice cobalt bit. Knowing that ill never get that clean of a drill lying under the car with a hand drill
 
Domon said:
im guessing these thread cleaners arent quite as hard as a tap, but theyre probably harder than a bolt. I could sacrifice one and try to drill it on the drill press with a nice cobalt bit. Knowing that ill never get that clean of a drill lying under the car with a hand drill
Click to expand...
Why sacrifice? You have the snapped off one somewhere, don't you?
 
Jehannum said:
The problem is that he'll be going into a super hard tap. Not like going through a bolt at all.
Click to expand...

I thought he said the inside of the thread cleaner was some soft pot metal.

I guess I'm not understanding how the tap was too aggressive. If it follows the threads 1/3 the way in like the bolt does it should just cut/clean the rest along that same path and not crossthread. If it's weld spatter big enough to stop the tap it should also protrude enough to get hit by a one size smaller bit, though it'd take a damn skinny sleeve and steady hand to do that.

Any way to see what is actually in the hole, like with a mirror or something?
 
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HipHugHer said:
I thought he said the inside of the thread cleaner was some soft pot metal.

I guess I'm not understanding how the tap was too aggressive. If it follows the threads 1/3 the way in like the bolt does it should just cut/clean the rest along that same path and not crossthread. If it's weld spatter big enough to stop the tap it should also protrude enough to get hit by a one size smaller bit, though it'd take a damn skinny sleeve and steady hand to do that.

Any way to see what is actually in the hole, like with a mirror or something?
Click to expand...

the threads are all mangled from corrosion, the bolt has enough slop to thread in, but the tap was having trouble with alignment and i was worried i was gonna cut new threads rather than get in the existing ugly ones. I couldnt get it to start cleanly
 
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