I'm here to testify that there is absolutely nothing as beautiful as a
Keensert sitting in a freshly tapped hole, just itching to show a torque
wrench what it can do. Even though it's raining, I tried a couple of
Keenserts tonight, and they seem to have worked perfectly, and they easily
took 34 foot pounds. The local dealer only had six, and I have seven holes,
but again I think the heliocoils are holding in at least two holes, so I
should be fine.
Now, an interesting problem has come up. The blind bottom holes are very
shallow, and the tap doesn't go far enough in to cut enough threads to make
me feel comfortable. As you know, the tap is the largest about in the
middle, so you really need to have the middle part go all the way to the
"bottom" of where you want threads.
Possible solution -- buy a second tap, and cut it off a third of the way up.
Use the first tap to get started, and the second to finish the job? Is that
possible? and can you even cut through these taps? Or is there another
obvious solution?
By the way, here's another "goof" for you professionals to groan over. When
I first started with the stripped threads business, I flipped the engine
upside down on the engine stand to make it easier to work on. The very first
hole I drilled out worked fine, except I forgot to cover the exhaust ports,
and of course some spiral pieces of aluminum dropped right down into two of
them.
Panicing, I got our relatively new house vacuum out, inserted the crevice
tool, and stuck it down the exhaust ports to suck up whatever may have fallen
in. It looked like I got the pieces out, but still not satisfied, I
duct-taped a small plastic tube to the crevice tool, and used that to probe
even further into the ports. It was about that time that my wife drives up,
and of course spots the vacuum which I tried to hide behind the garbage cans.
I manged to skirt the issue of "what was I doing," and successfully hid the
duct-taped rube-goldberg contraption hanging off the vacuum. Now I have duct
tape over the ports while drilling out the rest of the holes.
I keep trying to remember, it's not the destination that counts, it's the
journey!
Bruce
1980 Inca Yellow TR7 5-speed convertible
Chapel Hill, NC
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