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+--- Thread: unscrewing steering column problem... (/showthread.php?tid=4639)
RE: unscrewing steering column problem... - "Slack Alice" Simon - 08-07-2020
My local shop didn't have Plus Gas.
Offered me WD 40, realised, from my expression, that I knew that this is most definitely not a penetrating fluid.
Said that a mixture of diesel and acetone was particularly effective.
I only had a tiny amount of acetone, so have used it once.
Appeared to work.
RE: unscrewing steering column problem... - JonE - 08-07-2020
I have actually been using diesel, but there is a historic deep-seated use of 'WD40' as a descriptive thing . I'll bring the nail varnish remover home though... I did make a concoction after a previous forum thread, but have forgotten what I made it up in and what it smells like.
RE: unscrewing steering column problem... - Ivor Hawkins - 08-07-2020
I've been using the WD40 "specialist penetrant" in recent weeks and it has proved to be very effective and amazingly fast...I have no connection with WD40 by the way!
RE: unscrewing steering column problem... - John Mason - 08-07-2020
When I did my steering box I took off the front plate complete with gear wheel and steering arm. I then gripped the column in my vice and screwed the box from the column. It was tight so I completely removed the pinch bolt and gently tapped a wedge down the opening to open the threads a little. It does not want much at all the free it up. It can off then and all went back together ok with the pinch bolt tightening thing up again after adjustment.
John Mason
RE: unscrewing steering column problem... - JonE - 08-07-2020
John - brilliant thought. Can't wait to try that. Seems so darned obvious now I've read it but I seem to get a sort of anxiety blindness come down over me when confronted with things not doing as they are meant to in the bleeding book...
RE: unscrewing steering column problem... - "Slack Alice" Simon - 08-07-2020
I would give it quite a lot of heat.
It is probably what I call "a two blowlamp job", not one for the oxy-propane.
RE: unscrewing steering column problem... - Zetomagneto - 12-07-2020
Quote:You could try some exhaust clamps on the thicker part, and if you can put a bolt in the clamp which engages with one of the holes in the tube that would be even better.
Quote:The tube is quite thin and will dent or distort easily
RE: unscrewing steering column problem... - John Mason - 12-07-2020
With mine I put a narrow brass drift into the slots for the now removed locking bolt and gently tapped it round to unscrew it as I hadn’t got a ‘C’ spanner.
John Mason
RE: unscrewing steering column problem... - A G Wood - 13-07-2020
JonE: are you thinking of a 50:50 mix of auto transmission fluid and acetone? A lot of operators swear by that mix.
Also if you can get your hands on CRC Penetr8 [I think that's how they style it] disregard the 'freeze' claims, but whatever the penetrating agent is that they put in it, it works very well. Disclaimer: I haven't tried it on steering boxes....
RE: unscrewing steering column problem... - JonE - 13-07-2020
heated, then diesel and "acetone-mix" from superdrug... must be a bit of water in there!
Thanks to all!! Zeto's approach still didnt want to shift it but that was because the "bar" (an old lopper handle) I attached was too short and in the wrong plane for not bending.
In the end I found a manky pair of molegrips and squeezed on a longer tube to get the handles in.
Result! (I can see the power of the moments. It cannot fail but one forgets the diameter needed)
Interesting to find the screw-in bit is steel as well, rather than brass. Does that mean it would be unwise to put that into an alloy box for corrosion possibilities?
Next question - I can see that this now doesn't remove as the central tube is still stuck at the bottom, unless I withdraw it from the central tube vertically. Will this central tube remove (from the base) if I undo the big base nut?
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