I encountered this tool for the first time yesterday: I had kinda boogered the threads on a control arm-to-body bolt - not too bad, but I did not want to take the chance of stripping the concealed captive nut, which would have really been a problem.
Now this may seem strange, but we never used this tool in the bicycle shop; if we encountered a stripped axle or whatever, we just used a new whatever - after all, we were in business...and bike parts were never priced anywhere near OE Toy platinum parts!
My file cost almost $14 from NAPA - only place I could find it in STL on a Sunday - none of the other chain stores carried this, whether metric or SAE. It is cheaper from various online sources - and the local HF store did not carry it (although for this bolt I wanted something that would definitely be accurate).
This is a square bar with eight different pitchs, which should cover anything we encounter. It is easy to use and is fairly quick. I mounted the damaged hexhead in a vise and kept rotating it whilst filing. I used cutting oil as well. It also nicely cleaned up some corroded threads on the inside ends of the swaybar.
I definitely think this should be a "must-have" item. It truly works.
While the one in the Sears link is metric, an SAE version is also available for those uses.
Tom M.
EDIT:
This is a link to a Sears page which shows the tool:
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_1260 ... hread+file
Thread Restorer/Chaser File
- ARCHINSTL
- Goldie Forever
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- My tercel:: Goldie is a 1986 SR5 attualmente con Weber/also owned the first T4WD in STL in late '82
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Thread Restorer/Chaser File
T4WD augury?
"Oh, do not ask, 'What is it?' Let us go and make our visit."
T.S. Eliot - "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
"Now and then we had a hope that, if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates."
Mark Twain
"Oh, do not ask, 'What is it?' Let us go and make our visit."
T.S. Eliot - "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
"Now and then we had a hope that, if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates."
Mark Twain