Pinch Bolt

[Astrosquirrel]

Watcha talking about. It's easy.

It only took me 3 whole days and half my life worth of patience and perseverance.... easy

The benefits of not using / having the specialized tool

[Astrosquirrel]

I've just done the other side. The bolt was stuck way worse than the first one.

This time rather than faffing about with levers while impact gunning and such, I cut and reduced the bolt as close to the wall of the housing as possible, then I drilled a wedge at the center. Used the pointy bit of the air hammer, which pushed the bolt about a quarter of the way out, then the rest I handled it with levers, without rotating the bolt at all.

Total time: 2 1/2 hours

As I have no special tools, this will be my procedure going fwd if the bolt is stuck

[Mɐʇʇ]

Could you explain “drilling a wedge at the centre” please?

[Astrosquirrel]

Could you explain “drilling a wedge at the centre” please?

My apologies, English isn't my first language and sometimes what I write is bo***cks. Here:

Cheers

[Mɐʇʇ]

Ah. Got you. Thank you. I will do this myself .

[Astrosquirrel]

Alright good luck, hope it works out.

[Mɐʇʇ]

Success. I used just a little heat, combined with the air chisel with the Laser attachment in and both came out fairly easily.
(I'm very aware of the risks of overheating the ali - hence just enough heat to get it shifting with the air chisel, not more)

What worked for me:
* Nut loosened off until flush with the end of the bolt. (This is important to prevent you mushrooming the end of the bolt when you hit it with the air chisel)
* Attack with air chisel with the laser attachment in - no movement
* Bit of heat on the underside - attack with air chisel. Didn't move.
* Bit more heat again
* Attack with air chisel again - bolts start moving. hit it until it's as far along as you can get it with the nut still just about on.
* Nut off & attack with the impact gun to unwind the bolt.

Easier than I expected it to be, although I guess a combo of air tools, heat and luck all played their part.

For reassembly, I've put a bit of Quicksilver Perfectseal on it all. This stuff is amazing at preventing things seizing in on the boats.

The inner bushes on the old arms were pretty shot actually, can notice the different with the new upper arms in.