1976 280Z Restoration Project

[wheee!]

I have time.... lot's of time!

 

Just thought it might be a good deal at $100 (plus shipping)

[Captain Obvious]

So out of curiosity... Have you tried the age old technique of soaking everything with penetrating oil, partially threading one of the nuts back onto one of the end of the spindle pin (such that the tip of the pin is flush with the outside face of the nut) and giving it a whack or ninety with a BFH? Or leaning hard into the end of the pin with the impact hammer and see if you can buzz it out of there? Either of those methods will eventually cause damage to the nut or pin, but if you're just going to resort to cutting them out and putting the struts on the 50 ton press you've got nothing to lose.

 

I'm sure you tried that first, but it's my forum duty to ask. 

[wheee!]

Well, naturally I was counting on you to ask the Obvious...

 

Yes, rethreaded a nut and BFH'd it several times. Also attached a stripped nut removal tool to the opposite end and air impacted the frog outta it till the end of the spindle busted off. Of course it has also been soaking in penetrating oil for three weeks off and on.

 

Next is drift punch and BFH again along with some more oil.... THEN the sawzall and a torch if necessary. 50 ton is last resort cuz I don't wanna drag it all to work....

[Zed Head]

.... 0 for 2...

I can't do anything but laugh at this. This spindle has made a home in the support arm.

Challenge accepted...

I think that I understand how the puller is supposed to work and I don't think it should break that way.  The puller should pull the threaded end off of the spindle pin before that happens.  It looks like the inner all-thread rod was being tightened along with the outer pulling tube, causing it to bottom out on the pin shoulder.  There might be a technique flaw involved in the breaking of these tools.  The inner rod should be held static while the outer pulling tube is turned.  I don't know if the all-thread has flats for a wrench but they might help.

 

Anyway, too late now.

 

I don't see a mention of heat anywhere.  Might have missed it.  Anybody with a stuck pin should immediately go to heat.  Probably more effective than PB Blaster or Kroil or whatever.  The one pin that I did manage to get out intact would only move when the strut casting was hot.  It became immobile when it cooled.  I've had the same thing happens with exhaust flange bolts in the exhaust manifold.

[Captain Obvious]

Haha! "Impacted the frog out of it!". 

 

So you laid out what sounds like a perfect plan of attack. Good luck and hope you don't have to resort to the saw and dragging heavy parts to work.

 

You got one side out right? Last I heard, you had one pin 3/4 out. I assume that side came out the remaining 1/4, without too much drama?

[wheee!]

Heat would be the obvious remedy but I don't have an Oxy-Acetylene setup in the garage. I have a small heat gun but not the best for this situation....

 

and yes, I have removed the other pin with speed and violence (mushroomed head). I'm not worried, nothing will stop me from getting it out.

Edited December 2, 2015 by wheee!

[Zed Head]

Heat guns will put out surprising BTU's.  Just takes a little more time to get the parts hot.

 

I had thought of this before, on this topic - it's the opposite of the idea of an interference fit.  If you wanted to make two metal parts fit together so tightly that they wouldn't budge after assembly, you'd machine them so that the inner part was bigger than the outer, then heat the outer until the hole grew big enough to fit the inner.  Fit them together, one hot, one cold, and they'll never come apart.

[wheee!]

We do that with some parts at work. We pack one in dry ice, the other goes in the oven. Put them together and they are pretty much permanent. 

 

I will definitely give the part some heat with the heat gun, then 'persuade" it to move with a few well placed love taps from Thor!

[Consigli]

Thanks! I read that before too...

 

So, the wreckers in Alvarado Texas won't ship me the gas tank I need...

 

Anyone know someone in Texas near Alvarado that could look at it and perhaps perform a little third party transaction? They say it's rusted inside, but as long as it is not damaged, and no holes, it could still be salvaged maybe...

 

alvarado.JPG

 

Thanks guys!

Get your old gas tank to these people & they will make it better than new: http://www.gastankrenu.com/

[Patcon]

Zed,

In reality neither the all thread or the outer tube should rotate when pulling the pin. There is a bearing between 2 washers on the other end that allows the nut to tighten without implying torque to the all thread. I believe Captain is right. Not enough meat left in the all thread for what is being asked of it.

[Captain Obvious]

wheee, I'm sure that with perseverance and the unbeatable combination of smarts, technology, and brute force, you will win this battle. Good luck! 

 

Zed Head, They call that technique a "shrink fit". One of the places you've probably seen it is with ring gears that were shrunk onto flywheel castings. Heat the gear and drop it over the flywheel blank while hot. Once it cools, it locks tight. In more recent days it seems cheaper to make the whole flywheel out of one piece instead of a separate ring gear though.

[Captain Obvious]

Patcon, Here's some back of the napkin rough calculations to get an idea of just how little meat there was left on that puller...

 

Major diameter of internal 12mm thread - approx. 0.47 inches

Minor diameter of external 3/4-10 thread - approx. 0.63 inches

Cross sectional area of resulting cylinder between the two - approx. 0.55 square inches

 

When you compare that to the cross sectional area of the threaded portion of the spindle pin (approx. 0.69 square inches), you'll see that the puller is destined to fail before the pin does. And that doesn't even account for the stress risers or the fact that the spindle pin is made out of a better grade of steel than the all-thread used for the puller.

 

If you were to use a good quality 1-5 acme threaded rod for your puller, your minor diameter of the acme threads would be approx. 0.780 inches and the resulting cross sectional area for the cylinder would approach twice the area of the spindle pin tip. And that means that if the pin doesn't budge, at least the pin tip will tear off before the puller fails.