Yesterday arvo I decided I would finally swap my old scratched up alternator cover for the new one I bought a few weeks back. Anyway, all seemed fine, I got the bolts and the screw out of the old cover, pulled it off. After grazing my knuckles undoing some ridiculously over-tightened allen bolts holding in the magneto (think that's what it is), I got that out too. The last thing I had to remove was the little solenoid-looking thing which is held in with two screws. It took a bit of grunting but I managed to get one out. Tried the second, which was RIDICULOUSLY overtight for a goddamn phillips head screw, and only managed to spin the screwdriver and strip the damn crosses out...there's a little bit left but I gave up, reassembled everything until I get access to a garage and a vice. I figure what I"m going to have to do is remove the wire from the engine-side so that I can remove the cover entirely, stick it in a vice and then use a ratchet with a screwdriver-bit attachment so I can apply reasonable downward pressure while turning. If this doesn't work- impact driver? Last resort - try and get a pair of multi-grips on it? All because some dick (probably in the factory) overtightened some screws that have absolutely no requirement to be tensioned up like that. *rant off* <!-- s:sniper: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_snipersmilie.gif" alt=":sniper:" title="Sniper" /><!-- s:sniper: --> Anyone else had similar frustrations? What other techniques could I apply in removing a very tight screw that's in a fairly restricted place? I am a bit worried that if I use an impact driver I'm just going to end up cracking the cast-alloy cover, not that it's a huge problem, as long as I can actually get the stuff swapped over into the new cover. Otherwise, I'll be stranded...
try a pair of vice grip and some penetrating lubricant (e.g. liquid wrench) spray, wait, grip, and turn. hopefully that will get it out. if not, you can try to find some screw extractor at your local hardware store.
I remember mine being tight and I used the impact driver. A good rule of thumb is, if you strip the phillips head with an impact driver it was never going to come out anyway. Try the impact driver first, then if all else fails, apply a bit of oxy to the aluminium as it will expand more than the steel screw - the trick is to not stuff the pickup coil.
Thanks Dave, Bombermanx The crazy thing is that the screw was so soft to begin with - if it's going to be done up this tight it should be a hi-tensile part that's not going to strip this easily.
HAIL the impact driver! seriously though. Impact driver and torque wrench were the two best investments I ever made.
