Stripped Crank

[dvdt]

Call me an idiot, but I managed to strip the damn threads on the crank shaft trying to push the harmonic balancer on. What size tap do I need? It's only the first few threads. Maybe I should just JB Weld the Balancer on haha.

Steve

aka King_Tut

[Neighbors]

Steve,

You're not the first one to do this, and you won't be the last...

I acquired a 5/8"-18 tap just for the purpose of cleaning up a badly galled crank thread. After retapping, anti-seize and an ARP fastener completed the job (but, you might think about a balancer installer next go around. Fred and I made four from hardened all-thread...).

Hope this helps!

Chris

[Blue91]

Actually, when that happened to me, I LIKED the fact that the bolt was messed up instead of the crank. Therefore, I replaced the galled bolt with another STOCK balancer bolt. I just had the fear that if I had an ARP bolt (stronger) and the same thing ever happened again, that it'd mess up the crank more than the bolt next time. I figured the replacement stock bolt would be somewhat like a "fuse" that would mess up before the crank would.

Hope this helps.

[red95gts]

Yep..I got mine locked up in the crank with the balancer halfway on... The bolt wouldn't tighten or loosen and I was screwed. It tore the hell out of the bolt and after chasing the threads on the crank...all is well.

Try calling around to some machine shops to see if they have a used 5/8-18 tap they'll sell. I got one for $5.00 that wasn't good enough to cut new threads with, but works like a champ for cleaning up existing threads. FWIW, the only place I could find one locally was at Sears...but it was part of a HUGE tap and die set that was close to $100 (if memory serves.

Good Luck Steve

[dvdt]

Thanks for the advice. I'm glad I'm not the only one who has done this. I'll get a tap and clean the threads up. I used an ARP bolt and I know the crank threads are messed up. Thanks again.

Steve