AA Workshop Basics

[Blknight.aus]

Welcome to the first meeting of the AULRO Apprentices.

This marks the first post in what will be essentially what it takes some appies months to learn condensed down into a convenient, easy to read, (so long as I dont blather on tooo much) set of hints tips and projects.

I've been asked to lay out the basic stuff that is second nature to mechanics, things we do by rote just because thats what we do. little things like shaking the rag that you get out of the rag bin before you use it, why some gaskets get a sealant on them and others dont, which bolts you can reuse, which ones you shouldnt, do you clean them lube them. All the little stuff that appies go on to pick up once they prove they know how to do the mornos run, make a coffee sweep the floor and empty the waste oil drums.

The first lesson will be the one for which I am least well known.

Buddying nuts and bolts....

This is a relatively simple thing. When you take a nut and a bolt from an assembly, you put them back together. Wind the nut along with any assosciated washers back onto the bolt while you take the rest of the component apart and then when you are done pulling the component apart unwind the nut, put the bolt into the correct hole on one part of the assembly and then wind the nut on.

Its important for a few reasons

1. it helps to stop you loosing nuts and bolts
2. you know which nut bolt and combination of washers gos where
3. it stops you damaging the threads of the bolts
4. when you have to order new ones you have a sample bolt/nut and washer set in your hand

If your pulling something apart (that you dont have to reassemble, IE ratting a dead engine for a spare) or you're chucking nuts and bolts into a box wind a nut onto the bolt up to the head of the bolt or the end of the threads. If the threads become clogged when you wind the nut off they get cleaned, if the nut wont come off you wont use the bolt with a damaged thread because its kinda hard to insert the bolt with the nut still on it through the hole and when you take the nut off of the bolt you happen to have in your hand a nut with the right thread (and hopefully grade) in your hand ready to go. This simple practice stops something that leads to a lot of problems when it comes to assembly contaminated threads.

there is no way you are ever going to correctly torque down a fixing thats got a contaminated thread if you're lucky it'll hold the part in place and if your unlucky it'll stop short and it wont do the job.

Which leads to the next bit.

Cleaning the threads. I cheat, I have a set of common taps and dies and I just run that over the nut and the bolt if they even look a little dirty but 20 seconds with a good wire brush can make the difference between "umm its still leaking" or "now why did that bit snap off" and "well that went rather well actually". If the fixture was held with locktite this isnt an optional extra. IF you have loctite or evidence of loctite on the bolt in your hand Clean both the bolt AND the nut or stud hole out, use the correct loctite cleaner, run it through with a tap and die even use an old toothbursh and some solvent new loctite on old loctite causes problems. from incorrect torquing to a build up of crap in the bottom of the stud hole that stops the bolt/stud from winding home.

next lesson.....

RTFM. (unless someone has something more pressing they want explained)

[Blknight.aus]

RTFM....

READ THE FLIPPIN MANUAL...

This is about the single most important tip you will read anywhere. If your going to make it out there in grease monkey land. Read and understand the manual BEFORE you start doing anything (this is especially important for the haynes)

If after reading the manual about what it is that you are about to undertake then theres one of 2 problems in evidence either you or the manual are not up to the task. The solution is the same in both cases, more research.

Ive been spanner spinning for a long time, and even on landies I still consult the manual whenever Im doing something, OR I use a cheat sheet that I've compiled for the really common numbers like valve clearances, wheel nut torques, spark Timings. I dont leave home without a full copy of the RAVES, my series manuals and a heap of other grease monkey docs on a HD along with a laptop that can read the HD. Its very very easy to get distracted and pick the wrong number from the back of your brain when your doing something youve done a zillion times before.

I'll let you be the judge on whats worse the loose fitting that lets go some time down the track spilling oil throwing the rod or letting the wheel go wanderabout OR the one thats too tight and snaps off spilling oil, throwing the rod or letting the wheel go wanderabout.

once you start getting into the swing of reading manuals (especially the repair and overhaul ones) you start to pick up on things like "hey I need to replace the seals and according to the workshop manual theres 6 of them but the parts diagram only shows 4" then you move onto a different sub assembly and realize that the 2 missing seals are actually part of a different listing.

be honest, how often have you started a job, realized you've forgotten something and had to drive down to the local shop to get Item X only to proceed on for another half hour or so just to realize, Damn it I now need this too. Now, nod sagely if youve not only done that but then when you were putting it together needed yet another trip down to the store to pick up something you didn't get on either of the first trips.


and in the next exciting double episode. Cleaning things And the correct use of locking devices.

[Blknight.aus]

Cleaning things....

Ok hands up how many of you have, without looking, just reached for the nearest rag to wipe something down? just stuck your hand into the rag bin and grabbed one to clean the grease off of your hands? Congratulations your now due to spend the next N hours either looking for the nut/bolt/carby jet/o ring that was in the rag on the bench and/or Y hours at the in patients waiting to see a DR to remove the curl of Swarf from under your fingernail and to give you a tetanus shot.

What about cleaning something, Ever just grabbed the can of brake clean to shift a bit of stubborn gasket? used a commercial degreaser on a gearbox or engine block?. Did you check the MSDS? what about where the over spray was going? I'll bet you didn't know that some brake cleaners will dissolve half of the polymers in some plastics or that some degreasers and detergents will attack some metals. Ever seen someone have at a greasy engine with the high pressure gurney? ever seen what happens when you put 100+psi of pressure onto a seal that was only supposed to deal with say 1 or 2 psi of pressure, from the other direction?

The point of all of the questions is this. when you clean you need to be careful. A pin or bit of swarf hidden in a rag is just as likely to do something stupid like get stuck into a housing where it can play merry hell with fine tolerance equipment as it can into your flesh. Using the wrong cleaner in the wrong situation can leave you with an expensive repair bill and or wasted time as you fix something that wasnt really a problem. The truely sad thing about all of this is its something that most people wont get till they frell it.

Go on ask me how I know that a $99 gurney from Kmart can knock an inch long hole in the rocker cover gasket of a 2.25 four pot. on second thoughts dont.

Locking devices.

Unless your talking about padlocks and door locks they are one use only. Most of them depend on the deformation of a material to provide a binding action. Spring washers get flattened, Nyloc nuts get the nylon squished out and thread deformed nuts (aka pinch nuts) get reshaped into normal thread. once thats happened they dont grip any more if they dont grip they dont work.

Split pins and roll pins get weakened when you install them because they deform, when you get them out the get weaker still, they may not break when you goto put them back in but they might under load. They wont usually come out but they can send small parts into places where you dont want uncontrolled small parts.

in short... Dont reuse locking devices, the biggest nyloc nut that I know of costs $45 dollars but since its used to hold bridge plates together It doesnt get changed all that often. On a landy the most expensive locknut is probabley the one on the diff pinion flange, I'm not sure about you but I kinda like knowing that particular bit of flingy metal death is kept well and truely under control $10 or so aint that much compared to the cost of a funeral.

oh and dont put other washers over or under lock washers of any kind that just denies them the grip on the surface metal they need to work.

[Blknight.aus]

never forget them... always check them first.

so the bloke who dropped it off checked them all did he, or so he reckoned. you have no idea how much time gets wasted because someone, somewhere forgets something simple and when the job gets passed onto the next bloke he assumes that the something simple has already been done or else he wouldnt have been given the job.

What sounds more feasable.

the bulbs contact point is a bit dirty, the spring is a touch weak and its not quite contacting the replaced bulb correctly so its not working

OR

theres an intermittant earth fault that goes to the ECU which in turn is preventing the system that operates the bulb from sending the initiating signal to power up the unit to turn on the bulb?

or

Did you check the fuse yet?

oh

on fuses.

dont just replace them with larger ones. Sure occasionally you will get one that lets go because its old and cheap. but they blow for a reason you really should find out what that is before you put $10 worth of fuses into the socket till you get on that takes the load. Go make yourself a test light out of a reversing light holder and some clip leads. plug that baby in inplace of the fuse and while theres a short circuit condition in the wiring it'll glow nice and bright then when youve got it fixed it'll go dim out or whatever it powers will do the same.

Remember

Fuses do not protect items like radios, ECU's or anything thats not the vehicle wiring. The fuse blows to stop the electrons in the battery from turning the wires white hot and setting fire to your vehicle. (unless you own a jeep)

[Blknight.aus]

Almost every spring washer I've ever seen has a flat washer under it? I'm assuming a spring washer is a locking washer?

One question the serrated type washer; I was told there is a certain way/side they should be put on /clamped is this correct. Would I be correct the serration would face anti clock wise so it would bite against the surface of the object and the retaining nut against undoing?

yep, the washer is put there to stop the spring washer from damaging the metal underneath or from pulling through.

give it a go, get 2 pieces of flat steel and an appropriate size set of nuts bolts washers and split washers. bolt them together in various combinations, torque them up to the nominal torque for the size bolt you use and see how you go undoing them.

[Blknight.aus]

tool control and stuff...

Keep an eye on your tools and your parts, we've all read about murphys laws of mechanicing and the description of tools. You know the one that reads a hammer is a divining rod used to locate the most expensive part within reach of the $5 bit your trying to get to move. Well that kind of tool control isnt what Im talking about here, maybe I'll get into that later along with the correct tool for the job. (and for all of those out there that know me no its not going to be the gas axe)

Tool control is making sure that you know where all of your tools are when you're not using them and they aren't in places like sumps, on chassis rails, in tyres (yes, I have had to pull a tyre apart to retrieve someones mobile phone and no, after having been taken for a test drive the confetti didnt work anymore) if you're really lucky lack of tool control means you get to buy a new whatever it was you forgot. If you're unlucky you get to replace the engine and the radiator that you just boiled to death.

But tool control doesnt just end with the tools, what about workshop gear, vehicle parts, rags anything that might get somewhere its not ment to be. Its very entertaining watching a group of newish mechanics trying to work out why the truck engine wont run properly spending days stripping the fuel system and tweaking the injector pump just to have someone come along, remove the aircleaner to turbo inlet pipe and remove the fist full of rags that had been sucked in out of the aircleaner housing. Before you ask why you'd stuff rags into an aircleaner housing, its a common practice, if you remove the air filter put some rags in to prevent things falling into the housing and winding up in the compressor wheel of the turbo charger. Of course you are supposed to remove them prior to starting up.

so in a nut shell.

Keep all the bits under control and in a safe place at a minimum it will save you some time and effort looking for them.

[steve_35]

I have a little tip i picked up working on older cars

When fitting gaskets with or without silicone sealant wet both surfaces of the gasket and part with oil prior to fitting or squirting on the Silicone not to much just enough to wet the surface

It stops the silicone and gasket from sticking but not from sealing so when you pull it apart next time you don't have to scrape gaskets off

****This doesn't apply to head gaskets****

[bee utey]

Speaking of fuses, the number of times I have been told the fuse has been checked, only to find it is open circuit. Cheap glass fuses are the worst, but I had a guy with an 86 RR come in without dash lights, nor RH tail light and number plate light. I checked the fuse panel with a multi meter and discovered a faulty blade fuse. Looked fine! New fuse and away it went.:) Moral: get a multi meter and learn how to use it.

[korg20000bc]

Speaking of fuses, the number of times I have been told the fuse has been checked, only to find it is open circuit. Cheap glass fuses are the worst, but I had a guy with an 86 RR come in without dash lights, nor RH tail light and number plate light. I checked the fuse panel with a multi meter and discovered a faulty blade fuse. Looked fine! New fuse and away it went.:) Moral: get a multi meter and learn how to use it.

I've been told its better to use a test lamp than a multimeter. What do you reckon?

[Blknight.aus]

I have 4 different sized test lights 3,5/21,50 and 150W (admittedly the 150w is usually used as a dummy load or a charging regulator)

I have 3 multi meters

and 2 led light testers. head on over to the thread on various tools that I did up and you can see the most commonly used meters and the LED tester I made up.

http://www.aulro.com/afvb/technical-chatter/38770-specialist-tools.html

specifically

http://www.aulro.com/afvb/664829-post41.html

[bee utey]

Both Multimeter and Test lights
It all depends on what your testing
Absolutely, having both is good. I bought a ducky little device called a "SXE Probe" (logic tester) which does both voltage and test light functions, and also frequency and duty cycle which is great for injectors and stuff. Wouldn't be without any of my tools.:)

[Blknight.aus]

as in accordance with RTFM and general cleanlyness thread cleaning is an important thing as it enables correct torquing... Speaking of correct torquing.

Theres a lot of bolts and a lot of ways to do them up some of them are seemingly quite large bolts with reasonabley low values. Others are quite large with respectabley HUGE torque values. The first type you just to up with a torque wrench and you can reuse them almost as many times as you like the second you get to do up one time and one time only. This type of bolt is normally a torque to yield fastener and it achieves its maximum tension just before it goes all marshmellowy then snaps.

before you start to torque a bolt you need to check the following things.

1. Thread type. Is it the same, theres a lot of different thread forms and sizes out there some of them are close enough to work together but arent.
2. Thread condition. is the thread useable, damaged, contaminated
3. Grade. Is it the right grade for the job? putting to high a grade bolt in can have just a bad result as too low a grade.
4. Material. Is the fastner your about to use the correct material for the job. Did you just put a stainless steel nut onto an aluminium bolt?
5. Lock and Lube. Before you put it in do you need oil, loctite, spring washer,nyloc?
6. Torque Scale. Am I doing it up to inch pound, foot pound, Newton Meters, Kilogram meters Grams/Centimeter or something even more obscure? If you're using the rattle gun dont forget that rattlepascles are different to doogameters.

Once youve got all that done you can have a go at putting it together. Use the correct tool for the job, Tight then belt it with a hammer or rolling it up till the rattlegun stops is an excelent way to produce this, a variable pitch form thread that starts out with a 1.5mm pitch and heads into 1.75mm.

Heres the normal thread, this is where the thread was engaged into the fastner so it couldnt stretch.

26271

heres the bit where the thread didnt make it into the casting and being the weakest bit of the bolt this is where the initial stretching began. Much more torque and this bolt would have let go.

26273

and here it is in side profile on the thread gauge thats part of my thread file.

26272

If you're lucky a snapped off bolt just means an extra hour or so worth of inconvenience as you battle whats left out with the easy outs, drill outs and any other means you can think off. Worst case you melt down a handfull of grands worth of engine. If the manual specifies a torque, use a torque wrench and be sure that its in calibration. If the manual says to just do it up then you're supposed to do it up to the standard torque for the diameter fixing and thread form. These are easy to look up on the net and are avialable at a small cost from professional fixing suppliers and no, just because supercheap and autobahn sell blister boxes with nuts and bolts in them they are not professional suppliers.

[Blknight.aus]

Ok so assuming youve got all the above sorted and have a decent calibrated torque wrench to start with, how do you do angle torquing without a torque angle gauge.

For starters you dont use the torque wrench, once the initial torquing is done put it back in its box some where safe and break out the big breaker bar your scribe and your paint pen.

for startes your average bolt is 6 sided and your average socket is 12 sided which means you have 30 degree offsets easily positioned ready to use. all you need is a little prep work

26274
paint the area around the bolt and put a marker point on the bolt
26275
Scribe the paint inline with a point of the bolt the scribe mark on this one is way too wide but its only to demo the concept usually you make a skinny mark.
26276
paint the socket and place it on the fixture up against the existing paint, rotate it firmly in the direction of tighten so that there is no slack between the head and the socket
26277
Scribe mark the socket exactly in line with your existing scribe mark
26278
Remove and rotate the socket the required number of points to get your required torque angle (this image shows 30 degrees)

[Blknight.aus]

and once youve turned it all so that the scribe marks line up again you're done for that phase of tightening. (this images shows a 60 degree rotation)
26279

Heres a sketch of how it all works out since the photos were a bit blurry.

26280

Remember the key to angle torquing is as it is with all torquings.
Slowly
Smoothly
in Stages
in Sequence

If you yank it around or it starts to jerk and bind you increase the risk of damage and incorrect setting, if you crank down one bolt all the way to its maximum tension you can warp/misalign the casing or plate you're working on and the sequence is pretty much the same reason.

[abaddonxi]

And when you've snapped it off-



skip bunnings goto a decent tool shop, they will sell an easyout set with left hand twist drills, about 90% of the time the left hand twist drill will get it out.

if that doesnt get it the easyout will.

If the easyout wont you need to look at a thing called a rigid stud extractor (looks like a hex key with 6 knife edges on the points)

if that wont get it you need a device called a drill out.

IF that doesnt shift it go and buy the helicoil kit for the side bolt you snapped drill it out, tap it, insert the helicoil with some loctite 567, wait about 2 hours for that to setup then wind the bolt in with another smear of 567 on it.

best of luck.


http://www.aulro.com/afvb/wa-aulroians-group/107391-snapped-bolt-block.html