Will PB Blaster free a stainless steel bolt frozen in an aluminum
casting? Will anything loosen such a bolt in such a casting? Serious
question. My bow fitting is aluminum secured to the boat with a stainless
steel chainplate. But the bolt that holds the forestay in place is
stainless steel inserted through ears on the casting. And it's frozen.

Here is my suggestion, incorporating the previous contributions also:

Heat up head of bolt with small and pointy but hot flame (watch out not to
melt alu), next once the heat has transfered to the threaded stuck part ,but
alu is solid, hammer the bolt head in as to nail it in to the thread.
Obviously you dont want to pulp the threads (so dont use a sledge), just
loosen it, apply WD40 or similar and keep repeating these steps.
After 2 o 3 of these cycles carefully try with a wrench ; try both
directions , yes tighten it ,and move bolt if reasonable force will do it.
Again dont force, dont twist off bolt head; be really carefull.
Start the heat procedure again. Persistence pays off, and you should get new
bolt , but this time use antiseize compound suitable to location (galvanic
reaction).
Drilling out is the last resort and sort of problematic because alu is much
softer than S/S and drill bit tends to wander. Start with small bit right in
center.If you apply penetrants through that small hole to the deep end of
bolt/hole it just may come off .
Remember you are the skip ,you are the boss not the bolt!!!

cheer miks

Gogarty wrote:
Will PB Blaster free a stainless steel bolt frozen in an aluminum
casting? Will anything loosen such a bolt in such a casting? Serious
question. My bow fitting is aluminum secured to the boat with a stainless
steel chainplate. But the bolt that holds the forestay in place is
stainless steel inserted through ears on the casting. And it's frozen.


Can't comment on PB Blaster but have had pretty good luck with Kroil
from Kano Labs for many applications.

I'd call one of them and talk to the tech service people.

Lew

Soak in PB Blaster for a day or two, reapplying occasionally. Tap with
a hammer lightly when you reapply. If that doesn't work, heat up as
Miks said. PB Blaster and Kroil work about the same... either is the
best I've ever seen to loosen frozen parts.

One other suggestion: when you do put a wrench on the bolt, try tapping
the wrench handle with a hammer as you apply moderate pressure. And as
Miks says, as soon as you get any motion, try going the opposite way
instead of doing what comes naturally, i.e., applying all your muscle
in the unscrew direction. This will result in removing the bolt head,
not the bolt!

Rob

Gogarty wrote:
Will PB Blaster free a stainless steel bolt frozen in an aluminum
casting? Will anything loosen such a bolt in such a casting? Serious
question. My bow fitting is aluminum secured to the boat with a stainless
steel chainplate. But the bolt that holds the forestay in place is
stainless steel inserted through ears on the casting. And it's frozen.

You have one of those situations that everyone dreads. The safest way to
solve it is the most agressive. If you're uncomfortable about drilling
it out yourself, have a millwright or machinist do it for you. Trust me
it is the solution with the least risk.
If you are going to do it yourself use a center punch to strick a pilot
indentation dead center of the bolt. This will keep your drill bit from
traveling off center when you start drilling and assist in drilling
through the bolt dead center. Extreme care needs to be taken to keep the
drill bit in line with the bolt and not drift off at an angle. Use a
much smaller drill bit than what is needed to chase the bolt to the
thread size first as a pilot hole . Then increase to the size of drill
bit needed to actually drill out the bolt. Your dealing with stainless
steal, take care not to have the drill brake off. A broken bit will be
worse than the situation you have now. Once the hole has been drilled
out to the bolt size just at the threads you can then decide to chase
the threads with a tap of the same thread size or drill to the reomended
hole size to accept the next size tap to the next bolt size. Using heat
will undoubtably compromise the aluminum. You don't want to go there. If
you decide to use chemicles to lossen the bolt, center punch it first to
be sure you have dead center before trying to remove the bolt because
once you try removeing the bolt you will deform the outside edges making
it difficult to find center afterwards for drilling. Even using
chemicals you will need to strike the bolt several times to break the
aluminum oxide that has frozen the bolt. Spray with chemical hit bolt
using hammer and center punch spray chemical and strike again. Let stand
for a period of time then repeat. You may want to spread this process
over the entire day to let the chemical have a chance to actually
penitrate. haste makes waste. Sorry for the wandering thought. I've A
horrible headache.
Hope this helps.
Good Luck

sir
my experience in 20 years of water industry would lead me to try
first soaking overnight with every breakfree style stuff you can find
we use "certified "brand break free spray
if all else fails
mark the center of the bolt with a hole punch
using a cobalt or diamond bit drill the center of the bolt out the
depth of the bolt...try more break free ...if that failsl you can drive
an "easy-out " bolt remover into it and try that....if that
fail....oboy......drill the bolt to the diameter of its threads and
retap the hole
sound like fun...hahahahahaa
stainless is famous for spalling (welding) itself so always use
Neversieze on stainless fittings

vitus

In article .com,
says...


One other suggestion: when you do put a wrench on the bolt, try tapping
the wrench handle with a hammer as you apply moderate pressure. And as
Miks says, as soon as you get any motion, try going the opposite way
instead of doing what comes naturally, i.e., applying all your muscle
in the unscrew direction. This will result in removing the bolt head,
not the bolt!

Many thanks to all for your suggestions. The bolt is not threaded where
it is within the aluminum casting so it is really more a pin with a
threaded end on which is screwed a reataining nut. Ha! Quite unnecessary.
Don't want to use heat. Attacking the bolt head started to twist it off.
I am going to get a cutoff wheel, cut through the pin on both sides of
the turnbuckle to free the forestay then drive out the remnants of the
pin, or drill them out.

Gogarty wrote:
In article .com,
says...


One other suggestion: when you do put a wrench on the bolt, try tapping
the wrench handle with a hammer as you apply moderate pressure. And as
Miks says, as soon as you get any motion, try going the opposite way
instead of doing what comes naturally, i.e., applying all your muscle
in the unscrew direction. This will result in removing the bolt head,
not the bolt!


Many thanks to all for your suggestions. The bolt is not threaded where
it is within the aluminum casting so it is really more a pin with a
threaded end on which is screwed a reataining nut. Ha! Quite unnecessary.
Don't want to use heat. Attacking the bolt head started to twist it off.
I am going to get a cutoff wheel, cut through the pin on both sides of
the turnbuckle to free the forestay then drive out the remnants of the
pin, or drill them out.

Good news.
But consider leaving one side intact so you have smething to twist a bit
when the pin begins to move and keep soaking in penatrating fluid to
help lub it on the way out. If you take a fitting or small diamiter pipe
just larger than the pin that someone can hold on the other side of
where you are hammering the pin the impact will be much greater and put
less strain on the aluminum cast. Aluminum fractures easily.
Let us know how you make out.
Good Luck.