Curse you, Blue Loctite



S

Simon Brooke

Guest
I'm having one of those weeks where nothing I touch goes right...

You'll recall an earlier post about a possibly missing bush to a SRAM 9.0
rear mech? Someone kindly pointed out to me that the spare jockey wheel
set clearly has a bush. So I bought a set, disassembled the mech
again... and found that the jockey wheels in the set were nothing like,
and clearly inferior to, the original jockey wheels, and that the
bushing which came with the set definitely wouldn't fit the original. So
I've reassembled the damn thing with the original jockey wheel sans
bush, and I've got the spare set as, erm, spares.

Never mind, I thought, while I'm down here in the bike shed I'll fit that
new brake to the Mantra. Brief background: my Mantra had a perfectly
nice pair of Avid V brakes on the front, but they were missing an
adjustment screw. This didn't matter terribly, because I adjusted them
by bending the spring and they worked fine, but recently I picked up a
fairly nice apparently brand-new set of Tectro V brakes. Standard fit, V
brakes, no problem. And having the adjusting screw would make brake
set-up easier...

The only problem was, the bloody things came with blue Loctite on the
threads. Well, most people use blue Loctite, so it must be OK, I'm just
old fashioned. But as soon as I'd screwed the first one in as far as the
Loctite it went incredibly stiff. 'This isn't right' sort of stiff. So I
unscrewed it, and it unscrewed perfectly easily. I examined the thread,
no problem. I compared it with the length of the bolt out of the Avid,
no difference. Unfortunately the washer on the Tectro bolt was captive
on the bolt, and the washer on the Avid was captive on the brake body,
so I couldn't just just use the old bolt. Ho hum. Most people use Blue
Loctite, it must be OK. So I screwed it back in, and, up to the Loctite
blob, it went perfectly easily. And then it went stiff again. So I
heaved on the allen key, and... sheared the bolt.

$%*&#!

So, where before I had a working bike with a minor fault that only I knew
about, now I've got an unridable bike which is going to take major
surgery to sort out. It's my spare full suspension bike, so it doesn't
justify huge amounts of money. But it's a nice bike and it would be a
shame to scrap it. So the options are

(1) use a stud extractor to get the broken bolt out - tricky.
(2) get a replacement set of forks. I always meant to replace the forks
on that bike - they're Psylos, which aren't wonderful, but any
replacement is going to cost real money.
(3) put a disk brake on the front. I've got a Hayes HFX9 front sitting
doing nothing, but it would mean a new front wheel because the
current one doesn't have a disk-ready hub.

Bother! It really isn't my week.

--
[email protected] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/
,/| _.--''^``-...___.._.,;
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(,_....----''' (,..--''
 
Simon Brooke wrote:
> So, where before I had a working bike with a minor fault that only I knew
> about, now I've got an unridable bike which is going to take major
> surgery to sort out. It's my spare full suspension bike, so it doesn't
> justify huge amounts of money. But it's a nice bike and it would be a
> shame to scrap it. So the options are
>
> (1) use a stud extractor to get the broken bolt out - tricky.
> (2) get a replacement set of forks. I always meant to replace the forks
> on that bike - they're Psylos, which aren't wonderful, but any
> replacement is going to cost real money.
> (3) put a disk brake on the front. I've got a Hayes HFX9 front sitting
> doing nothing, but it would mean a new front wheel because the
> current one doesn't have a disk-ready hub.
>
> Bother! It really isn't my week.


To make life better (Or possibly worse)... in my experience and in
those of everyone I've spoken to, Tektro V-brakes are truly the Spawn
of Stan! So had you successfully fitted them, you'd probably have
experienced a decrease in quality from your not very adjustable Avids!
:)

Jon
 
Simon Brooke wrote:

>
> Never mind, I thought, while I'm down here in the bike shed I'll fit that
> new brake to the Mantra. Brief background: my Mantra had a perfectly
> nice pair of Avid V brakes on the front, but they were missing an
> adjustment screw. This didn't matter terribly, because I adjusted them
> by bending the spring and they worked fine, but recently I picked up a
> fairly nice apparently brand-new set of Tectro V brakes. Standard fit, V
> brakes, no problem. And having the adjusting screw would make brake
> set-up easier...
>


Swapping Avids for Tektros sounds like a massively retrograde step.

> The only problem was, the bloody things came with blue Loctite on the
> threads. Well, most people use blue Loctite, so it must be OK, I'm just
> old fashioned. But as soon as I'd screwed the first one in as far as the
> Loctite it went incredibly stiff. 'This isn't right' sort of stiff. So I
> unscrewed it, and it unscrewed perfectly easily. I examined the thread,
> no problem. I compared it with the length of the bolt out of the Avid,
> no difference. Unfortunately the washer on the Tectro bolt was captive
> on the bolt, and the washer on the Avid was captive on the brake body,
> so I couldn't just just use the old bolt. Ho hum. Most people use Blue
> Loctite, it must be OK. So I screwed it back in, and, up to the Loctite
> blob, it went perfectly easily. And then it went stiff again. So I
> heaved on the allen key, and... sheared the bolt.
>


Blue loctite isn't that strong. Its sounds as if there is some other
problem as well as a faulty bolt. Are you sure the brake body isn't
thinner and the bolt bottoming out?

You might be able to get it out with a centre punch and hammer to drive
the bolt round and maybe the application of some heat to loosen the loctite.

Good luck!


--
Tony

"I did make a mistake once - I thought I'd made a mistake but I hadn't"
Anon
 
Tony Raven wrote:

> Blue loctite isn't that strong. Its sounds as if there is some other
> problem as well as a faulty bolt. Are you sure the brake body isn't
> thinner and the bolt bottoming out?


Tsk, Tony, it was bound to happen. It is a Fact that ALL threaded brake
components are made from cheese.

--
Dave Larrington - <http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk/>
The best way to confuse a Daily Mail reader is to tell it that
paedophiles form the staple diet of asylum seekers.
 
Dave Larrington wrote:
>
> Tsk, Tony, it was bound to happen. It is a Fact that ALL threaded brake
> components are made from cheese.
>


Well if people will use cheesehead screws.... ;-)

--
Tony

"I did make a mistake once - I thought I'd made a mistake but I hadn't"
Anon
 
On Fri, 05 Aug 2005 11:09:15 +0100, Simon Brooke
<[email protected]> wrote:

>So, where before I had a working bike with a minor fault that only I knew
>about, now I've got an unridable bike which is going to take major
>surgery to sort out.


There are such things as stud extractors - something like this:

http://www.premiertools.co.uk/item1022.htm

I think it works like a left-handed tap - giving enough purchase to
back the stid out of the hole. You shouldn't need heat or butchery to
remove your stud (bolt). Try a decent tool shop or a hire shop.
 

> So, where before I had a working bike with a minor fault that only I knew
> about, now I've got an unridable bike which is going to take major
> surgery to sort out. It's my spare full suspension bike, so it doesn't
> justify huge amounts of money. But it's a nice bike and it would be a
> shame to scrap it. So the options are
>
> (1) use a stud extractor to get the broken bolt out - tricky.
> (2) get a replacement set of forks. I always meant to replace the forks
> on that bike - they're Psylos, which aren't wonderful, but any
> replacement is going to cost real money.
> (3) put a disk brake on the front. I've got a Hayes HFX9 front sitting
> doing nothing, but it would mean a new front wheel because the
> current one doesn't have a disk-ready hub.
>
> Bother! It really isn't my week.
>

And here's me thinking I was having a bad week with four punctures in four
days due to the local youths smashing bottles on a cycle path. I hope
everything gets sorted.

John
 
in message <[email protected]>, m-gineering
('[email protected]') wrote:

> Simon Brooke wrote:
>>
>> I'm having one of those weeks where nothing I touch goes right...
>>
>> And then it went stiff again. So I
>> heaved on the allen key, and... sheared the bolt.

>
> Serves you right for trying to solve your problems with brute force ;)


Indeed.

>> (2) get a replacement set of forks. I always meant to replace the
>> forks
>> on that bike - they're Psylos, which aren't wonderful, but any
>> replacement is going to cost real money.

>
> Any suspensionfork is bound to have a replacable -steel- screw-in
> brakestud


Yup, you're right, it does, as my LBS pointed out to me when I went in
seeking tea and sympathy for my kackfistedness. It's going to get a
liberal dose of plus gas later today, and then it's going to come out.

--
[email protected] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/
"The result is a language that... not even its mother could
love. Like the camel, Common Lisp is a horse designed by
committee. Camels do have their uses."
;; Scott Fahlman, 7 March 1995
 

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