While wrenchin’ on an old, and sometimes rusty, project car, you’ll come across threaded holes that have been wallowed out like a mine shaft from cross-threading, debris, and general wear. Other times, a fastener may have to pass through a few components and brackets before to find its home, and you just can’t get the stars holes to align so that it can grab a few threads.
The proper way to clean out a threaded hole is with thread chaser, and it’s an essential skill and tool to have. The secret sauce behind both thread chasers and taps are the flutes cut along the shaft. As they thread in, the flutes allow for material to escape from between the tool and threads, clearing out dirt and metal chips that are created while digging through the hole to either repair or cut threads.
Thread chasers are the go-to tool for repairing damaged threads, and are a lifesavers for both the weekend- and weekday-gearhead — but what if it’s 2:38 am on a Tuesday, and you’ve got to be at work the next morning, but you’ve got that one hole that won’t comply and there’s not a chaser in sight? Grab the death wheel!
Using a thin cut-off wheel, you can cut your own flutes into spare hardware to make a homemade chaser, or simply flute the tip of the fastener so that it can clear the way for load-bearing threads as the fastener is tightened. Use your best judgement here, we wouldn’t use a self-chaser on major components such as your suspension; but for brackets and light-duty applications, it could save a lot of trouble.
Take your time, and try to cut the flute as straight as possible. Afterwards, you can gently round off the tip to help it dig into misaligned parts. Make sure to deburr your newly-fluted fastener so that you don’t make any problems worse.
The best part about this trick is that you can either use your fluted fastener as a temporary custom-length thread chaser, just in case a normal set won’t fit.
When you go to thread the fastener, the flute not only helps to clean and repair the threads, but the hard edge of the flute also helps it pull through misaligned parts. With a little oil, you should be able to start working the fastener in with hand tools — go easy, and if the fastener become difficult to turn, back it out and make sure the flute hasn’t filled with trash or that the fastener hasn’t begun to cross-thread.
Wrenchin’ Wednesday is a weekly garage-hackamajig, making wrenching great again with small tips that make working on your project easier, cheaper, and maybe even a bit faster. We’re probably not the first with any of these ideas, but you won’t be the last to know every Wednesday!
Last week, we talked about how to easily remove hood springs, a crucial step in preventing damage to your hinges while the hood is off.
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