[Vwdiesel] What is the candle wax GP extraction trick ? (fwd)

[Mike & Coreen Smith]

Val,

I enjoyed reading your "tirade"...hehh
I can honestly say I learn a little something from "you guys" just about
every
single day.

T H A N K S !

Mike in NB

Mike, Coreen & Corey Smith
699 Rte 616 Keswick Ridge
NB
Canada
E6L 1T1
----- Original Message -----
From: "Val Christian" <val at swamps.roc.ny.us>
To: <vwdiesel at vwfans.com>
Sent: Monday, January 31, 2005 3:57 PM
Subject: Re: [Vwdiesel] What is the candle wax GP extraction trick ? (fwd)


> What Cassie describes is very good, and where you're at if you're
> faced with sticky glowplugs.  Al cylinder heads tend to strip when they're
> warm.  Been there.  Work the temperature for YOU, so that you're
comfortable
> and can FEEL things.  It was in 78, but my recollection regarding
> the glowplug I broke off on #2, was that I didn't even put 30 ft-lb
> on it.
>
> Cynic: How would you know?
>
> Answer: I've practiced tightening and loosening things from teenager to
> present, with a torque wrench, my favorite box and combo wrenches, etc.
> In sports, it's called Muscle Memory.  A big part of golf, I am told by
> sports trainers.  Well, slinging the wrench in the backyard is a sport.
> (If you don't believe it, watch the sweat when you're losing.)
>
> When you have a problem bolt, whether on a cylinder head, a vibration
> damper pulley or a brake caliper, you apply penetrant, heat, shock, and
> give it a few days, each day doing an application or two.  Shock can
> be a light tap with a wrench, or a swing with a 5 lb hammer, depending
> on what you're freeing up.  It becomes a game.  Like passing the ball
> around until someone lets a shot opportunity open up.
>
> Scientifically, wetting agents and small molecules help.  I don't know
> if fish oil (WD-40) is a bigger molecule than parafin, but my guess is
> that parafin is smaller.  That's why the wax trick will work. Also,
because
> the wax isn't volatile, it doesn't dry out of the threads, and keeps
> lubricating as you get the threads starting to move.  On conventional
steel
> the thing you are trying to do is to colapse the rust matrix.  Oxides
> of metals are harder and more brittle than the metal.  Al oxide is
> used in sandpaper and saphires.  Shock, thermal and rapping with a
> wrench, helps break that matrix.
>
> Developing a feel for when fasteners (or glowplugs) are starting to yield
> is a good thing.  Years ago, I developed surface metrology software
> for a materials lab.  There I got to see Instron machines testing
> materials, welds and other things.  Metals inelastically deform before
> they break.  Cassie is right, if you see the hex on the glowplug
> start to move without the base of the plug in the metal moving,
> you're in real do-do.  Time to STOP, regroup, and reach into the
> arsenal.
>
> I've related this to Hagar, but every now and then I decide to save
> time, and not use impact, not use heat, and figure I can just take
> a stuck fastener off with a wrench.  I keep relearning the same lesson.
> If it doesn't want to come with normal torque, something is wrong,
> and it's time for penetrant, heat, impact and so on.
>
> When I broke off #2 glowplug, I spent years trying to get it out
> of there.  Using tire spoons applying pressure to extractors, and
> turning the extractors with wrenches on ground flats of a shortened
> extractor.  I never got it out, until the head came off.  Fortunately,
> it remained intact, and never leaked forcing me to pull the head
> prematurely.
>
> Take a pile of some common hardware and break things.  1/4-20 bolts
> are a good starting point.  They snap right off with a 7/16 wrench or
> a rachet.  Feel the metal yielding.  It gets a inelastic sponge feeling.
> When you've broken a few fastners, practice drilling them out.
> It's easier to get good at extracting in the shop, than working
> on a vehicle.  Access is limited, salt water is dripping in your face,
> your hands have the gritty black grease formed by sand and sooty crankcase
> oil.
>
> Enough.  I probably drive at least half of you nuts with the pencil
tirades.
> I just feel compelled to pass on the tricks that an old fart mechanic
> taught me when I was a kid.
>
> Val
>
>
>
> > From: cass <iscass at SHAW.CA>
> > Subject: Re: [Vwdiesel] What is the candle wax GP extraction trick ?
> >
> > i did this on a stuck and beginning to break glow plug.
> > had sprayed it for days with liquid wrench
> > to no avail.
> > then took a propane torch..
> > (everything elts on head was removed)
> > and heated the area enuff to draw wax in
> > along threads..
> > when still warm..gently tapped wrench one way then the other..back n =
> > fourth.
> > left right.. tapped twice left..once right..
> > till i felt it give a little.
> >
> > finally out.
> > had to do this to two gp's=20
> > both stuck..both the 'nut' was beginning to turn and glow plug not
> > ( beginning to break)
> >
> > worked for me.
> > i may have been lucky.
> > have used wax many times.
> > with a little heat.
> > always seems to work.
> > but maybe its the heat..and the time i take..not the wax?
> > dunno.
> >
> > cassie.
> > from the wet rusty algae infested  west coast
> > ( where the snow drops n=20
> >  crocuses and irises are up :oD  )
> >
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