Topic

Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.
Although I’ve not decided on what order I’ll be doing the various “off season” jobs, one thing is certain, when I start I’ll have all the bits I need ready to go & the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Amongst the jobs is to replace the flexy bit of the exhaust & the manifold. I’m no stranger to removing manifolds, I’ve was introduced to the job in infancy whilst dad took the head off his Rover 12 & I’ve been party to any number of similar events.
There’s been a common denominator to all these jobs & that has been rusted & seized nuts, broken studs & poor access to drill them out.
All evidence indicates that the head has never been off the car & so in anticipation of the struggle ahead I ordered left hand cobalt drills, modified an old wiper motor & fitted a chuck, (which my son saw & promptly borrowed) anticipating having to drill out wreckage. I made a new set of studs & bought a set of brass nuts for both manifold & exhaust pipe. All the gaskets are stored with the other parts awaiting the job to start. All was good.
Yesterday I had to remove the access panel to make “an easy job” easier, it was nether. Whilst there I had a look at the manifold & to my surprise the nuts still looked like nuts & the thread forms of the studs were also recognisable.
Tempting providence I put a 15mm socket on each & they felt tight & stable, then with the breaker bar each got a bit of thrutch & one by one they obligingly slacked off.
I should have felt elated but after all the prep & planning I was a little crest fallen.
We are a strange breed.
M
PS I’ll take a picture of the “wiper motor drill” if I ever see it again.

i like the idea of a wiper motor drill. Would i be right in thinking it is a lot lower profile than a standard drill so is ideal for use in confined spaces ?

It was conceived as a low speed, low profile reversible drill that would fit between the “broken stud” & bulkhead. The maximum drill diameter was 8mm which was governed by the chuck, I reasoned that running left hand drills, the heat generated by the drilling would be enough to make the use of a stud extractor viable. My lad will report back;
I like to go for non destructive testing, Edward ignores the “non destructive “ bit & goes straight to the testing.
It was fun to make especially turning the morse taper for the chuck.
M