Posted by Tim Holloway [69.54.28.229] on Monday, January 27, 2014 at 20:39:32 :
OK, the only Dodge content is the word "Dodged" in the title. You have been dully warned!
I took today off to work on my Son Gordon's car. He works on weekends so it just wasnt going to happen then. On the agenda was front brakes, a tie rod end, valve cover gaskets, plugs, wires and a fuel filter.
I was working on the brakes, and I had set him up with swapping plugs and wires. I pulled the first plug and showed him how to do everything, including swapping the plug socket onto a torgue wrench and torquing the plugs down. I duck back down into the wheel well, and hear him straining on the wrench. Then he asks "is this the right way to loosen them?" I knew the ratchet was set to remove, as I had removed the first one, then swapped wrenches to install. I just said yes and went on with what I was doing. A few seconds later I hear a SNAP and an "oh crap" Yup, he snapped the plug off flush with the top of the head. The car is an Audi A6, and the plugs are about 6" down a hole. I shine the flashlight down the hole and all I see is a circle of broken off porcelain. Ohh, not good at all. I called a friend who is a mechanic. He suggested starting it and perhaps the compression would blow the porcelain out and maybe I could get some sort of extractor into the remaining steel. I was pretty skeptical, but what the hey. I had Gordon start it and POP, out came the porcelain, OK, that was good. I have a really good set of Snap-On extractors, and tried the largest one. They are not tapered like a screw extractor, but are straight and fluted, meant to be driven into a specific sized hole. The largest one tapped in, but without much resistance, and just stripped right out. Back to the drawer and I found a large tapered extractor. I tapped that in, but then could not get much on ity to turn it. I tried a 5/15" open end wrench, placed vertically over the end of the extractor, with a long screwdriver through the box end of the wrench. Still no joy, but at least I didnt snap it off in the head. I just couldnt come up with anything to catch a 5/16" square head. I figured I would get the extractor out and take it to a local metal fab shop and have them weld it onto a 6", 3/8" socket extension. I went in, and asked the Owner about it and he didnt look too thrilled. He thought for a second, walked over to a tool cabinet, rummaged around a bit and came out with a socket and handed it to me. It was a socket made to drive a tap with a 5/16" square head! Wow, perfect. Back to the shop, tapped the extractor in, slipped the socket and extension on and then a 38"x1/2" adapter and then the impact wrench. Slowly applying pressure with the impact, and gradually increasing it, it just sat there and hammered away for about a minute, then pop! and out it spun. Talk about a relief! Whew. I was not looking forward to pulling the head off to get it worked on. I think that may be the first time I have ever had a tapered screw extractor actually work.
Got all of the work done by 4:00, and he is happy as can be.
Looking back at it, I wonder if he had tried removing it, then reversed the ratchet, (asking me if this was the right way) and then tightened it until it snapped? No telling, but I went ahead and broke the other 4 loose for him!
Good times fer sure.
Tim
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