Kevin G

I am trying to remove my heat exchangers from my 79sc. I am using the heat cool method, however on one of the barrel nuts the inside rounded. Any ideas on tools or ways to remove the rounded barrel nut. Any advise appreciated.

Kevin 79sc

Chris Martin

I have had this happen a couple times, but not on the heat exchanger. Maybe I was lucky, and you might not have room, but.... when it was glowing hot I grabed it with vise grips and gave it a whirl. I have a 45 deg. set that are handy for this type of thing. Another time I used a chisel and gave the bolt head a wack so I could use a screw driver on in, again while it was hot. Of course this ruined the bolt, but it's already bad, and will be replaced anyway. Take your time and be patient.

Best of luck, I look forward to some creative solutions!

Chris

Kurt V

If you luck is like mine it is a barrel nut that can only be accessed through the access hole in the heat exchanger. I suggest you get a torx bit(looks like a 10 or 12 point star and can be found at Sears) that is slightly larger than the hole. Use a hammer to tap the torx bit into the hole and hopefully you can remove the nut.

crashmy911

try vise grips!!

Kevin G

Thanks for the advice guys. I couldn't find a torx bit the right size and couldn't get a 9mm hex key to go in after heating the barrel nut. The next thing I tried worked, using a slighly larger regular screwdriver I heated the barrel nut until it was bright red, hammered the srewdriver in, tightened the nut first and then turned it off. Talk about happy, and as luck would have it I got to try this method again when I rounded a second barrel nut, again same results nut came off. Over all I'm pretty happy with the results, all nuts off with no broken studs. Now it's time to put the new heat exchangers on.

Kevin 79sc

Chris Martin

Nice work!