tstat housing, frozen

[rhpaw]

So y'know.. it's rather incredible how my westy continues to run considering the amount of hardware on it's that's destined to never move again. between rust and electrosys, everything seems to be one piece of frozen metal.
-in reference, now every time I aproach the van with a wrench I say "this is gonna hurt...lots"

Last night, thermostat housing. I had PB'd the unit earlier (days earlier) in fear of this.. but I DID NOT use the torch.
Remove oil filter, grab a 10,
Bolt one, pop %#!@%@$
hmm, easy baby...
bolt two, pop @%#@

So, looks like my cool 15 minute job of changing the theromostat now involves dropping the water pump (with fasteners as equally dubious)

On the bright side I read of someone doing this exact same thing and continuing to drive because the housing never broke from the waterpump.. Is the thermostat housing threaded also? I pushed on it last night and it sure didn't seem like it wanted to move.

If that's the case, I'll leave the bad tstat in there and only drive the van in the hot summer. otherwise, I guess it's time to bust that waterpump off.

[/b]
_________________
"z's house of boxer"

[Vanagon Nut]

Hi

At the risk of taking up bandwidth with stuff likely contained in previous list mail....

If feasible, give the head of the bolts in question a whack before setting wrench to them.

I, as others, totally understand. No on wants to have to drill and tap. Especially in a confined space.

Oh yah. Heat. A good thing.

Neil.
_________________
1981 Westy DIY 15º ABA

1988 West DIY 50º ABA

VE7TBN

[psych-illogical]

I had a similar and equally miserable experience with my Westy. Changing the t-stat I went to remove the cover and snapped off one of the bolts (yup, shoulda used some heat).

So, I removed the entire housing. There wasn't enough bolt left to get a pair of vice-grips on so I ground it off flush with a dremel, carefully center punched it and drilled a hole for an easy-out. Gently tapped the easy-out in and started twisting the broken bolt out and 'SNAP!', the easy-out broke off in the bolt. I figured I was really screwed now. So, I ground the easy-out flush with the dremel, very carefully center punched it and grabbed a carbide drill bit. This is where a drill press would have been really handy to make sure I was drilling straight. I got my wife to eyeball one axis for straight and I eyeballed the other. It was slow going but I was making progress when the carbide drill bit (very, very brittle material) broke, slipped to the side and very significantly gouged the t-stat housing. *&#$**&@@&&* (wife goes and hides in house). Nothing to do now but go on TheSamba classifieds and try to find a new housing. Nothing there. Ebay? Yup, somebody had one with a 'buy it now' option. A $5, 15 minute job turned into a $50, week and a half job. Ah, the joy of owning and working on quarter century old vehicles.

A note on easy-outs: I never had much luck with them. In this particular instance, I figured (since it's a relatively small bolt) I'd use the biggest easy out I could get in there. As I thought about the dynamics involved I shoulda gone a lot smaller. I had drilled out the bolt to the point where the remaining material was so thin that I'm pretty sure I was just forcing the tapered easy-out against the threads very tightly and consequently forcing the bolt threads even tighter against the tapped threads kinda defeating my purpose. There's gotta be a balance between doing that and using one that's too small that might break off even more easily.
_________________
83 1/2 Westy waterboxer
'57 Beetle-sold
Coupla '81 BMW motorcycles (R80G/S; R100RS)
'96 BMW R1100GS

[rhpaw]

I've never had an easy out work for me unless it was in an absolute perfect environment.
hhmmm..
I guess I will try...
1. heat M'er F'er with propane and MAP, try PB plaster and birthday candle trick from above.
2. hammer wacks (the housing damn near looks glued to WP)
3. possible dremmel screw slots in protruding fastener (I may have a chance)
If all that fails, then I'll buy the danm Waterpump. if that fails under the same circumstances..
Well... I'm sure if I looked hard enough I could find a nicer 1.9 lump than what I have.

or suby.

Personally, I'd love to drop the engine and do a rebuild. But, although long lasting, the 1.9 doesn't seem to be a marvel to engineering or powerhouse worth doing.
_________________
"z's house of boxer"

[Vanagon Nut]

[riceye]

I've had the same (<10%) success with easy-outs. More times than not, they will fracture inside of the hole that I've just spent a good deal of energy to create.

Then I tried reverse twist drill bits. It is still probably less than 50% success, but before I bail and pull out the visa card for the comprehensive repair I like to give them a try. Line them up square, be patient with the drill, and use a slow speed with some oil.

If and when the old fastener releases and backs out, you just know that life has gotten better! This has saved me hours and dollars.

Worth a try.

Salud,
Ric
_________________
'87 Westy Weekender - daily driver on salt-free roads

There's gonna be some changes made.

“I find that things usually go well right up until the moment they don't.” - Ahwahnee

"Quality isn't method. It's the goal toward which the method is aimed." - Socrates, later quoted by R.M. Pirsig