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Hop-Ups
for Dummies - Galvanic Corrosion and Stuck Bolts by
Chad Baird
There's
an old biker saying; "If it has more than three bolts
it's probably important."
And without a doubt two of these three important steel bolts
will be threaded into something aluminum which reacts in a
manner scientists call <insert grim organ music with a
loud scary voice over> 'Galvanic Corrosion'
So what
the hell is galvanic corrosion? Galvanic corrosion is an electrochemical
reaction, that needs three things to be present;
1. Two dissimilar metals (In our case steel and aluminum)
2. An electrolyte(water)
3. An electron path (a tight fit to a ground)
Because of this chemical reaction no matter how careful you
are you end up rounding off the heads on two of the three
important bolts. !@#$%^!! ALL TO %^&* you say?? Take a
deep breath your not stuck just yet. No pun intended.
Enter the special tool I call 'easy outs'.
This special tool is used to remove stuck fasteners. It looks
like a dull drill bit on one end and on the other is a four
sided part that you can slip a crescent wrench on to remove
the bolt.
Here's how you do it. Find an appropriate sized drill bit
and start drilling into the bolt. How far you drill into the
bolt depends on the size of the bolt, drill bit and easy out.
After drilling say a 1/4 inch into the bolt, take a hammer
and firmly tap this easy out into the hole
you just drilled. Now take the crescent wrench and place it
over the square side of the easy out and
WALLA! You just removed this stuck bolt. Oh yeah, it takes
a certain amount of finesse to do this the first time out.
Keep in mind the easy out of made out of the same material
that the drill bit is; Hardened steel, if you break the easy
out, your screwed. Time to bring it to the machine shop, don't
ask me how I know.
In order to combat this corrosion next time I use a substance
called 'Anti-seize'. Anti Seize is a sticky gray looking substance
that comes in about 30 different varieties but the most common
stuff you'll find is made of copper, graphite, aluminum and
other ingredients.
This
chemical concoction shields the two metals from reacting to
each other, thus reducing the amount of time spent devising
a plan on removing these bolts which leaves you more time
for bench racing and beer drinking.
So the next time you strip a fastener it might not be your
fault... Blame it on 'Galvanic Corrosion'.
About
the Author: Chad Baird - My riding/wrenching
obsession started in the summer of 88-89. My Dad got me a
used $50 Sears minibike with a seized 4hp Tecumseh. I spent
hours upon hours in the garage hooking up throttle cables/linkages,
kill switches, changing tires, swapping engines and of course
riding and crashing. Dad would hand me a repair manual, show
me how to do something once (mostly how to use a tool) and
then was pretty much hands off except to yell at me about
loosing his tools. He would also cuss me out for taking off
without making the bike 100% ride-able or fixing something
half-assed. So that's basically how I learned, lot's a trial/error
and getting yelled at. heheh.. Now my whole life revolves
around working on, riding, talking about and teaching others
who are interested and even some who aren't, how to do the
same.
Motorcycle Missionary? or just an annoying biker with a tendency
to pontificate? You decide...
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