Ford tractor
Platinum Member
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2010
- Messages
- 975
So, I brought a TLB back home from a piece of property and did routine maintenance on it and found a missing bolt. Uh-oh. Got a mirror on a stick and a bright flashlight and found 1/2 of the bolt anyway. Stuck in the hole and in a VERY inconvenient location. Ok, no problem I can handle that. Made some bushings to guide the angle drill. Drilled the bolt in the dead center first 5/32 then up to 1/4 using a left hand bit, hoping it would unscrew. No luck.
I didn't want to take any chances and went to the store to buy a NEW screw extractor from Vermont American pn 21814. That's a #4 extractor that uses a 1/4" pilot hole. As there isn't room to give it a good set with a hammer, I just tapped it down as best I could. The instruction (cartoon) shows using a tap to spin it, but there wasn't room, so a 4" crescent wrench was used. With almost no pressure at all (maybe 15-20 ft-lb) the stupid brand new POS screw extractor snaps like glass. It was so little force, I thought it just slipped out, but no it's broken off at the bottom of a 2" hole flush with the top of the bolt.
Please do not purchase anything from Vermont American. Garbage made in China with obvious lacking quality control of thermal treating.
I didn't want to take any chances and went to the store to buy a NEW screw extractor from Vermont American pn 21814. That's a #4 extractor that uses a 1/4" pilot hole. As there isn't room to give it a good set with a hammer, I just tapped it down as best I could. The instruction (cartoon) shows using a tap to spin it, but there wasn't room, so a 4" crescent wrench was used. With almost no pressure at all (maybe 15-20 ft-lb) the stupid brand new POS screw extractor snaps like glass. It was so little force, I thought it just slipped out, but no it's broken off at the bottom of a 2" hole flush with the top of the bolt.
Please do not purchase anything from Vermont American. Garbage made in China with obvious lacking quality control of thermal treating.