I recently read a post on using an Impact Driver for those who are doing things to their bike for the first time. Not so long ago, I had never even picked up a wrench to work on a motorized vehicle. As I have been involved with my bikes I have slowly gained the confidence to delve deeper and deeper into repairs and restorations. I give the major majority of this new found confidence to this excellent forum. This is all to say that this post is for anyone who has any doubts in their ability to accomplish the following task.
I would think a common problem we might run into post drilling out the punch marks that the factory used to keep our Wheel Bearing Retainers from back out. These retainers, especially the front one, can be very delicate, and the threads even more so. I ran into this problem when removing my retainer, and I really bunged up my threads. I thought I had cleaned them up really well, but when I went to screw the retainer back in, it got cross-threaded and really messed up the threads (and destroyed my original retainer – ooops!!!)
The Original…
The messed up threads
So my question was, how do clean these up so that I won’t kill another retainer? I ordered a new retainer and seal (messed up the seal beyond repair with the original retainer). I posted the question to the board. I got several good answers, but the one that made the most sense was from 754.
Thread file wont do internal..
Try this, find a sharp tap of same pitch.. size, not important..
Now hold it tight in a tap holder, and pesent 1 flute to the threads, get the tap into the good part, and with leaning or light pressure work around the damage, trying not to take any off the good thread..
...good luck..
So, I went at it. It works great! I took a Metric Tap whose pitch matched the damaged threads. I double checked the pitch against the new retainer. I then carefully went over the damaged thread with the Tap. To do this, I found an undamaged starting point where the threads of the Tap were flush with the undamaged thread in the Hub.
I then carefully went around the circumference of the hub surface using moderate pressure, so that the Tap would “cut” away the damaged thread. I must have done a lot of damage, as I took off a bunch of metal. I was careful to check my progress as I went along. I would use a brass brush to remove the larger loose metal that was removed, and then I would use some PB Blaster and a rag to really clean the threads up. I would then take the new retainer and lightly screw it in. If I hit any resistance, I would back it out and continue to clean up the threads. I repeated this until the retainer screwed in and out smoothly.
The Tap I used is on the left
In like Flynn!
Hope this helps guys!!!
