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Re: Throttle Body Hell
> I'd be interested to hear where the original poster is from. I'm
> originally from Boston, where bolts become one with nuts, stripped/frozen
> fasteners are an expected part of working on the car. I'd imagine the
> Pacific Northwest is the same. Now I live in Colorado, I understand why
> the magazines would write about some jobs as trivial tasks - "unbolt the
> shackle and remove." Shackles (on Jeeps) need a whole lot more than
> unbolting in Massachusetts. Colorado is snowy in the winter, but no salt
> is used - I occasionally encounter a frozen bolt, but it is rare, and often
> on a car which is from a saltier part of the world.
You're wrong about the NW. It's a car's heaven here as they use no
salt either. Our winters are extremely mild due to the moderate
climate. Now, in Seattle they need to use salt on those killer
hills but that's only like 2 or 3 times a year normally. Cinders and
sand are the materials of choice as people here are very
environmentaly concerned, much as I remember CO to be.
My car was "born and raised" in the NW and Brad was amazed at the
lack of corrosion under the hood when he helped change the water
pump. Parts such as the radiator mounts that are really dingy on his
(he's from Chicago) look almost new on mine. You'll see more
pristine old classic cars here than almost anywhere else. Still, an
occasional frozen bolt is encountered like the one on my water pump
pulley which I soaked for a few days to no avail and the 4 water
pump bolts :(
> Liquid Wrench does NOT equal WD-40. WD40 and other spray lubricants don't
> work like LW. A friend swears by some stuff called "PB Blastr." He's from
> MA also, it seems good. He knows the power of LW, and now is converted to
> this PB stuff. If I ever see it, I might get some. Use LW *before* you
> try to loosen anything.
Let me add that there's a product called "Yield" that also works
great. We used to use it in a shop I worked at in PA, it was great.
> HIT bolts with a hammer, a big one. "Tapping" is not enough. I remember
> changing a pitman arm on a Chevy truck once with Rusty. We were removing
> the pitman arm, trying to....the arms are bolted on with three nuts on
> tapered spindles, much like a tie rod end, but three. We had the nuts off,
> decent sized hammer, hitting it to no avail. Rusty's father, Cam,(not
> kidding) came over, watched us, laughed, said "don't hit it like a girl"
> and whacked the thing. Clunk, it fell on the floor. Hit the bastards,
> don't break stuff, but to me, "tapping" does not sound like enough.
I used to "specialize" on front end work, among other things :)
There's no substitute for a mini-sledge (5-7lb) when doing this type
of work. Brute force is a good thing on certain things.....
> Heat. Not a cheesy propane bottle, but a torch - MAPP, acetylene, y'know,
> a _torch_. Get it HOT, then try.
For some reason my apartment complex has rules against keeping
torches. I could never understand this, they must not work on their
cars :) Oh yeah I forgot.....they ban us from working on cars too!
> Let the LW soak. I used to have a bigger problem when I did not let it
> soak - now, I try to spray it well ahead of when I'll need it to work, and
> it normally does.
This is great advise......if you know you're gonna be working on
something start spraying the penetrating oil several days in advance.
Give it a shot in the morning when it's cold and another shot after
it's been driven and hot. You can never over-soak, but you can
always under-soak.
Rick
hugacub@whidbey.net
Richard.Lackner@entex.com
85 Scirocco 8V Wolfsburg
Everett, WA
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