How to FIX spinning tank nuts

[Mustang]

Over time , either from overzealous mechanics who tighten the damn screws down until they spin the captive nut , or the other biggie that will make them spin is rust ,
1. First use a 5/16ths drill bit to drill the head of the bolt off so you can get the fairing panel out of the way .

2. Now with whats left of the screw , if you can get a cordless drill to chuck on it great , otherwise you will have to drill and put an easy out in it . Don't drill too deep or you will puncture the gas tank , then you are screwed

3. wind that drill up until you melt the plastic and keep pulling the insert out of the melted plastic .

4 . when it comes out it will have a hex on it so you can put it in a vice and remove the remains of the bolt .

5. grind the hex down so it is round and scar it up some this is to make it small enough to fit back in the whole that was created when removing

6. open the whole in the tank up to the size of the nut insert only remove the excess flash around the whole , too much and you will puncture the tank
*****EDIT :be extremely careful here , if you get carried away you will have a gas leak .an alternative would be to grind the wellnut down to size until it fits in the whole it created when you yanked the well nut out ****

7. Mix up some JB Weld and fill the pocket in the tank with the epoxy about half full

8 with a cap screw in the nut insert , stick it into the tank and let the JB weld cure



9 remove the cap screw and with a razor knife clean off the excess epoxy and then the job is done

10 . to help prevent it from happening again put a little dab of grease on the threads and only hand tight snug .

[tattyTigger]

drilling the heads off the bolts ain't esy by the way, I blunted loads of drills bits doing that, because I had a spare fairing I used a Dremel to grind the fairing off,

as an alternative I heated the studs with a mini-blow torch and just pulled them out with pliers when the surrounding plastic had softened,

then opened the holes up with a polishing bit on the Dremel (just melts the plastic when it heats up), replaced the nuts into the holes full of plastic epoxy resin.

...sure is stupid idea of using them skinny captured nuts, but the bike has a really prob with spinning nuts on nearly all of it's body kit  :?

[Colonel Nikolai]

I had a broken off bolt inside one of these captive nuts from the previous owner. Finally got it out but it's not usable:



The hole once the broken nut (above) was removed:


The replacement nut (left) compared to the old one (right) is much shorter:



The JB-welded fix:

[rf9rider]

Are these captive nuts available to buy anywhere?
I have one missing on my tank, about time i got around to replacing it.
Or if anyone has dimensions so i can get something similar.

[Colonel Nikolai]

Are these captive nuts available to buy anywhere?
I have one missing on my tank, about time i got around to replacing it.
Or if anyone has dimensions so i can get something similar.

It's a stainless M6 (that is 6 mm) "acorn" nut. The fact that it's stainless, metric and "acorn" turned out to be rather uncommon in my locale. The attendant at the fastener place I bought it at was "surprised" that they had it in stock.

I think you'll have an excellent chance of finding a normal steel version of this at any decent place that sells fasteners in the US. Not so sure about getting one in stainless steel, though, nor what it's like in the UK.

[Bixxer Bob]

RF9, you're local to me.  If you can't find one I'll run you one up.  I've got some stainless bar so easy enough.

BB

[Colonel Nikolai]

I've got some stainless bar so easy enough.

In fact I think stainless bar is a better solution than the shorty acorn nut I used: you can groove it easier thereby it'll "hold" into the cold weld mix better.

[ChazzyB]

For stainless fasteners in the UK (prolly export too), Stig's Stainless have an excellent range and good service too.

http://www.a2stainless.co.uk

[rf9rider]

RF9, you're local to me.  If you can't find one I'll run you one up.  I've got some stainless bar so easy enough.

BB

Thanks mate, if i can`t find one i`ll let you know.  :)

[MIMbox]

Pm'd you, RF9

[rf9rider]

Pm'd you, RF9

Thanks.  :)

[NeilD]

looks like I'm going to have to go down this route..  :(  theres only about 4mm left of the screw sticking out, I dremeled a couple of flats on it and unsiezed it so it now turns, but so does the 'captive' nut...

so, I presume that I drill out the screw, then the 'easy out' screws into the captive nut??

[Mustang]

looks like I'm going to have to go down this route..  :(  theres only about 4mm left of the screw sticking out, I dremeled a couple of flats on it and unsiezed it so it now turns, but so does the 'captive' nut...

so, I presume that I drill out the screw, then the 'easy out' screws into the captive nut??

if the nut is spinning now , it is probably going to spin trying to drill it and use easy out , good luck with that :twisted:

if you can get a drill chuck on it  you can spin it fast enuff to melt the plastic and just pull it out while it's spinning

[Colonel Nikolai]

if you can get a drill chuck on it  you can spin it fast enuff to melt the plastic and just pull it out while it's spinning

It's still not easy. You will need patience. I had no screw to grab onto, though. I used drill and an extractor and it took two days of on-and-off jiggery pokery to get the old busted nut out. I finally used a screwdriver and levered it out.

[Bob Tosi]

My experience was a little different. Here's how it went:

starting out



after about 15 minutes of screwing around with a drill, the bit wedges in the bolt and I keep it spinning as I pull the bit out.



captive nut intact!  yipee!




the hole left after removal



So this is my question, do I drill this out so the captive nut fits back in, then expoxy it all up and put the captive nut in the expoxy?