Last week, I played mechanic and had to replace an oil pan gasket on our
99 Ford Taurus with 160k+ miles.
This required the removal of the exhaust pipes from the manifold
flanges. Anyone who's attempted this knows how rusty and brittle those
manifold stud bolts and nuts can get. I've heard nightmare stories about
them snapping, or cracking the manifold casting, etc.

Of course, on mine, the nuts were rusted half off and practically welded
to the studs. After spraying with penetrating oil and letting sit, these
things were just not moving, because they were rounded over and
undersized from the rust.

So I picked up a set of these Irwin Bolt Extractors:
http://www.irwin.com/irwin/consumer/jhtml/browse.jhtml?catId=IrwinCat100511

The 12mm stud bolts were long and actually too thick to fit through the
hole in the bolt extractor, so I thought I had wasted my money. Then I
decided to try something. The heads on these studs are actually rectangular.
http://info.rockauto.com/RB/kit03131-007.jpg

I took the smallest Irwin extractor, 5/16-8mm, and put it on that
rectangular head, used my breaker bar with a pipe on the end, pulled
hard on that bad boy from about 3 to 5 o'clock and then "POP!" and a
small cloud of rust-dust poofed out from above the manifold. Sucker was
loose! Did the same to the other stud bolt, which looked in worse shape
than the first.

I had another 12mm head starter motor bolt that was rounded off and the
proper sized Irwin extractor took it off like it was a wingnut.

Next, I had a couple 6mm machine screws (that hold the oil pan) with
sheared off heads.
You've all seen these on the TV infomercials...
http://www.aldn.com/grabit/

I was skeptical, but the Grabit worked perfectly and took them both out
without doing any damage to anything other than what it removed.

So two thumbs up for both of these products. WELL worth the money.


--

-MIKE-

"Playing is not something I do at night, it's my function in life"
--Elvin Jones (1927-2004)
--
http://mikedrums.com

---remove "DOT" ^^^^ to reply

Hey, you don't have dyed black hair and a dyed black beard and alwasy
wear a blue shirt, talk real loud and fast and have your own 1/2 hour
TV shows about wierd products that would never sell if sitting on a
store shelf?

On May 22, 2:31*pm, -MIKE- wrote:
Last week, I played mechanic and had to replace an oil pan gasket on our
99 Ford Taurus with 160k+ miles.
This required the removal of the exhaust pipes from the manifold
flanges. Anyone who's attempted this knows how rusty and brittle those
manifold stud bolts and nuts can get. I've heard nightmare stories about
them snapping, or cracking the manifold casting, etc.

Of course, on mine, the nuts were rusted half off and practically welded
to the studs. After spraying with penetrating oil and letting sit, these
things were just not moving, because they were rounded over and
undersized from the rust.

So I picked up a set of these Irwin Bolt Extractors:
http://www.irwin.com/irwin/consumer/jhtml/browse.jhtml?catId=IrwinCat....

The 12mm stud bolts were long and actually too thick to fit through the
hole in the bolt extractor, so I thought I had wasted my money. Then I
decided to try something. The heads on these studs are actually rectangular.http://info.rockauto.com/RB/kit03131-007.jpg

I took the smallest Irwin extractor, 5/16-8mm, and put it on that
rectangular head, used my breaker bar with a pipe on the end, pulled
hard on that bad boy from about 3 to 5 o'clock and then "POP!" and a
small cloud of rust-dust poofed out from above the manifold. Sucker was
loose! Did the same to the other stud bolt, which looked in worse shape
than the first.

I had another 12mm head starter motor bolt that was rounded off and the
proper sized Irwin extractor took it off like it was a wingnut.

Next, I had a couple 6mm machine screws (that hold the oil pan) with
sheared off heads.
You've all seen these on the TV infomercials...
http://www.aldn.com/grabit/

I was skeptical, but the Grabit worked perfectly and took them both out
without doing any damage to anything other than what it removed.

So two thumbs up for both of these products. *WELL worth the money.

--

* -MIKE-

* "Playing is not something I do at night, it's my function in life"
* * *--Elvin Jones *(1927-2004)
* --
*http://mikedrums.com
*
* ---remove "DOT" ^^^^ to reply

SonomaProducts.com wrote:
Hey, you don't have dyed black hair and a dyed black beard and alwasy
wear a blue shirt, talk real loud and fast and have your own 1/2 hour
TV shows about wierd products that would never sell if sitting on a
store shelf?


No, but I love that Discovery channel show and enjoyed the coincidence
of them being featured on this week's episode. :-)

FWIW, I bought the Grabits off the shelf of the local Ace store. :-)


--

-MIKE-

"Playing is not something I do at night, it's my function in life"
--Elvin Jones (1927-2004)
--
http://mikedrums.com

---remove "DOT" ^^^^ to reply

Yeah, I saw parts of the "Pitchman" show and if I recall, the Grabits
were actually failing to pay-off on the commercials. So maybe they
belong on store shelves.

What I found interesting was that the TV Brands (or whatever the
companies name was that was making the commercials) was actually not
charging the product company for the ads but was doing them on spec
and taking a slice of the sales price. Great business model, now if I
can just get them interested in my chain saw turkey carving tool
complete with splash guard and ceiling scraper.

On May 22, 3:08*pm, -MIKE- wrote:
SonomaProducts.com wrote:
Hey, you don't have dyed black hair and a dyed black beard and alwasy
wear a blue shirt, talk real loud and fast and have your own 1/2 hour
TV shows about wierd products that would never sell if sitting on a
store shelf?

No, but I love that Discovery channel show and enjoyed the coincidence
of them being featured on this week's episode. * *:-)

FWIW, I bought the Grabits off the shelf of the local Ace store. * :-)

--

* -MIKE-

* "Playing is not something I do at night, it's my function in life"
* * *--Elvin Jones *(1927-2004)
* --
*http://mikedrums.com
*
* ---remove "DOT" ^^^^ to reply

SonomaProducts.com wrote:
...now if I
can just get them interested in my chain saw turkey carving tool
complete with splash guard and ceiling scraper.


You need to show that to the guy from the other Discovery show, "Doing
da Vinci," who refuses to use anything but a chain saw for everything. :-)


--

-MIKE-

"Playing is not something I do at night, it's my function in life"
--Elvin Jones (1927-2004)
--
http://mikedrums.com

---remove "DOT" ^^^^ to reply

-MIKE- wrote:
Last week, I played mechanic and had to replace an oil pan gasket on our
99 Ford Taurus with 160k+ miles.
This required the removal of the exhaust pipes from the manifold
flanges. Anyone who's attempted this knows how rusty and brittle those
manifold stud bolts and nuts can get. I've heard nightmare stories about
them snapping, or cracking the manifold casting, etc.

Of course, on mine, the nuts were rusted half off and practically welded
to the studs. After spraying with penetrating oil and letting sit, these
things were just not moving, because they were rounded over and
undersized from the rust.

So I picked up a set of these Irwin Bolt Extractors:
http://www.irwin.com/irwin/consumer/jhtml/browse.jhtml?catId=IrwinCat100511

The 12mm stud bolts were long and actually too thick to fit through the
hole in the bolt extractor, so I thought I had wasted my money. Then I
decided to try something. The heads on these studs are actually rectangular.
http://info.rockauto.com/RB/kit03131-007.jpg

I took the smallest Irwin extractor, 5/16-8mm, and put it on that
rectangular head, used my breaker bar with a pipe on the end, pulled
hard on that bad boy from about 3 to 5 o'clock and then "POP!" and a
small cloud of rust-dust poofed out from above the manifold. Sucker was
loose! Did the same to the other stud bolt, which looked in worse shape
than the first.

I had another 12mm head starter motor bolt that was rounded off and the
proper sized Irwin extractor took it off like it was a wingnut.

Next, I had a couple 6mm machine screws (that hold the oil pan) with
sheared off heads.
You've all seen these on the TV infomercials...
http://www.aldn.com/grabit/

I was skeptical, but the Grabit worked perfectly and took them both out
without doing any damage to anything other than what it removed.

So two thumbs up for both of these products. WELL worth the money.


I discovered grabit a few years back when I had some SS square drive
deck screws cam out just a little too far in to get them out with the
vise-grips.

--
Gerald Ross
Cochran, GA

The best cure for insomnia is to get a
lot of sleep.

"-MIKE-" wrote:

After spraying with penetrating oil and letting sit, these
things were just not moving, because they were rounded over and
undersized from the rust.


Next time start with Kroil, hasn't failed me yet.

Lew

Lew Hodgett wrote:
"-MIKE-" wrote:

After spraying with penetrating oil and letting sit, these
things were just not moving, because they were rounded over and
undersized from the rust.


Next time start with Kroil, hasn't failed me yet.

Lew


I have the spray can. :-)


--

-MIKE-

"Playing is not something I do at night, it's my function in life"
--Elvin Jones (1927-2004)
--
http://mikedrums.com

---remove "DOT" ^^^^ to reply

SPAMMER!!!!

Well, somebody had to do it.

Thanks Mike. That is the practical nuts and bolts stuff that is much
appreciated here.

Lee Michaels wrote:
SPAMMER!!!!

Well, somebody had to do it.

Thanks Mike. That is the practical nuts and bolts stuff that is much
appreciated here.


Just want to make you aware of the ridiculously obvious pun you
wrote, just in case it was an accident. :-p


--

-MIKE-

"Playing is not something I do at night, it's my function in life"
--Elvin Jones (1927-2004)
--
http://mikedrums.com

---remove "DOT" ^^^^ to reply

"-MIKE-" wrote ...
Lee Michaels wrote:
SPAMMER!!!!

Well, somebody had to do it.

Thanks Mike. That is the practical nuts and bolts stuff that is much
appreciated here.


Just want to make you aware of the ridiculously obvious pun you
wrote, just in case it was an accident. :-p
--

I prefer to think of it as serendipity. ;-)

-MIKE- wrote:

Last week, I played mechanic and had to replace an oil pan gasket on our
99 Ford Taurus with 160k+ miles.
This required the removal of the exhaust pipes from the manifold
flanges. Anyone who's attempted this knows how rusty and brittle those
manifold stud bolts and nuts can get. I've heard nightmare stories about
them snapping, or cracking the manifold casting, etc.

Of course, on mine, the nuts were rusted half off and practically welded
to the studs. After spraying with penetrating oil and letting sit, these
things were just not moving, because they were rounded over and
undersized from the rust.

So I picked up a set of these Irwin Bolt Extractors:

http://www.irwin.com/irwin/consumer/jhtml/browse.jhtml?catId=IrwinCat100511

The 12mm stud bolts were long and actually too thick to fit through the
hole in the bolt extractor, so I thought I had wasted my money. Then I
decided to try something. The heads on these studs are actually
rectangular. http://info.rockauto.com/RB/kit03131-007.jpg

I took the smallest Irwin extractor, 5/16-8mm, and put it on that
rectangular head, used my breaker bar with a pipe on the end, pulled
hard on that bad boy from about 3 to 5 o'clock and then "POP!" and a
small cloud of rust-dust poofed out from above the manifold. Sucker was
loose! Did the same to the other stud bolt, which looked in worse shape
than the first.

I had another 12mm head starter motor bolt that was rounded off and the
proper sized Irwin extractor took it off like it was a wingnut.

Next, I had a couple 6mm machine screws (that hold the oil pan) with
sheared off heads.
You've all seen these on the TV infomercials...
http://www.aldn.com/grabit/

I was skeptical, but the Grabit worked perfectly and took them both out
without doing any damage to anything other than what it removed.

So two thumbs up for both of these products. WELL worth the money.


Grabits work well, use them on stripped hinge screws all the time. I broke
some in the head after trying to get my exhaust manifolds off. But my
problem is I couldn't get a drill in to extract them. Have to pull the
Heads to get to them. Which sucks big time.
--
"You can lead them to LINUX
but you can't make them THINK"
Running Mandriva release 2008.0 free-i586 using KDE on i586
Website Address http://rentmyhusband.biz/