Well hells bells......ATX tensioner retaining bolt

[Bizzy]

Tonight we were trying to get my son's 95 put back together with a few new parts in hopes of me taking it up to Canada tomorrow so Marcel can try to weld the crank key in place.

John was tightening up the hydraulic tensioner bolts and ended up tightening one up too much. Yes, I told him to use the torque wrench but he didn't. His lecture will begin tomorrow. In any case, he tightened the bolt and it stripped. We haven't removed the bolt as of yet.

I'm wondering though, could the bolt just be stripped out out or the threads inside the hole where the bolt goes. I'm afraid to remove it at this point for fear that this has sealed the deal on him getting a new motor.

Insight is appreciated. This has not been a very good night at all.

 

[1993MTXSHO]

If I had to guess id say the threads in the hole are gone, hate to be the barror of bad news. I did that on my F-150 I stripepd the aluminum intake putting a low temp thero in and god was that **** it was my daily driver to get me to school everyday and when i striped it it was raining out so it wasnt fun fixing that. try to just tape some larger threads in it thats what i did with the intake. I jsut used a larger bolt. I dunno if you can do that in this case though not sur how thad work out.

 

[RAYJAY]

bizzy the best way to fix it is get the bolt out and redrill and tap the hole for a
Helicoil thread repair kit

here is a pdf on how they work

http://www2.tech.purdue.edu/at/cour...801-900)_REPAIR_AND_MAINTENANCE/TOB822r01.pdf

 

[SeanMc]

A friend of mine (not going to mention any names ) pooped up the threads on the crankshaft. We went and got a tap, re-threaded it, and all is well again .

 

[RAYJAY]

A friend of mine (not going to mention any names ) pooped up the threads on the crankshaft. We went and got a tap, re-threaded it, and all is well again .

yea but.... thats into a crankshaft which is steel some times you can do that

on cast iron or alum. the threads just pull out and then your done. and bizzy is this the same motor that the tensioner was screwed up in the first place ??

Jeff

 

[SHOtimer]

I doubt that the threads inside the block are stripped, it is more likely that the bolt is just jacked up. The bolt is not as strong as the cast iron that the block is made of.

Good luck.

Doug

 

[Off Road SHO]

What Doug said. Look at the bolt threads, are they fat and rounded off or sharp and thin? Try and run a tap in there to clean the threads out before you try another bolt.

Tom

 

[Bizzy]

Ok, so I went out to pull the bolt off to see how bad the bolt looked. The bolt is snapped off. I'm not sure why John didn't feel that it was snapped off, maybe some of the remaining threads still caught a little bit, I really don't know. I guess the good news is that it's snapped. I'll get an easy-out and get the rest of the bolt out and go from there.

 

[Bizzy]

Bolt is out, replacement purchased. Crank at TDC, cams aligned, timing belt on. Now in process of using RayJay's ****** timing tools to finish up that part. The rest will be on John.

 

[bonneville92]

good to hear bizzy, good luck on your trip to canada, i'll be heading over to marcell's once the car is finally on the road and get some sub frame conectors put in.

 

[38SHO]

if it was cast iron its extremely hard to strip out the actual threads in the metal, especially with hand tools. The iron takes quite a bit more then aluminum.... I do lots of helicoils cause every part I deal with goes into aluminum almost
=)

 

[ohioshodude]

if only beth had a boat that could carry a car! would cut hours off her trip

 

[Bizzy]

A boat did you say?

I'm home again, safe and sound. I did get 2 boat rides, I took the ferry from the US over to Canada. I about threw up too. :vomit: UP.......and down.....and up..........and down........and up....... Not too bad once we got underway.......until the freighter passed in front of us.

Marcel and Christina are most gracious hosts, we had pizza and beer for dinner. Naturally, it's the supper of champions. The work got underway this morning at a decent hour and was all wrapped up in short order. I forget exactly what time I left there but I got home just after 6pm this evening. Blueberry is all mended including a new front main seal. We'll keep our fingers crossed that the rest will go down in history books as one of the few that have survived crank cancer.

Huge kudos and sincere thanks to Marcel & Christina for taking such good care of me and the car. To Fred for sending the parts I needed to make the car right again. To RayJay for sending the timing belt tensioner tools. And to all of you who have been there to lend support. I owe you all.

 

[Bizzy's Boy]

Yes! Thank you guys so very much. Marcel, Fred, And RayJay I cant tell you how happy I am to have Blue Devil back up and running. Ive already got it gassed up, washed, and I even took it out for a test drive. Im giving it all the TLC that I can. THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH!

John