My car's distributor rotor (94 civic, see earlier post today :) ) is held in place with a a seized up philips head screw that is starting to get stripped. It doesn't look like a bolt, unlike the combo screw/bolts that hold in the distributor cap. Anyone have a smart strategy for getting old corroded screws out?
(Can't believe I'm asking this question, oh well...)
Thanks.
The screws are usually a small allen socket, not a philips. However, yours may have been replaced with a non-stock unit. Are you indeed sure that it's a philips and not an allen?
If it is a philips, then make sure that you're using an anti-camout driver such as one of these
the allen heads haven't been used for years! break the rotor and the get a vise grips on it to break it loose, or i've used an impact driver also Chip
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Did you try the pedal-to-the-metal method to see if the Owner's Manual is right? Those screws can be a real bear. (it won't smell flooded, the way carbureted cars do).
'Curly'
I did try that, and flooding did not seem to be the problem but thanks for the suggestion.
"hutchtoo" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@rcn.net:
It's a tough one! You may have no choice but to remove the distributor (which is easy).
Well that's one way to take control of the situation!
I just have to laugh, seems in these projects I spend 50% of my time dealing with seized up screws and inaccessible bolts. :P
If you have to take out the distributor, you might grind a straight slot in the screw head with a Dremel motor and a small grinding wheel. Then you could just use a straight tip screwdriver to unscrew it. Ron
"R&B" wrote in news:6K0Se.2583$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr30.news.prodigy.com:
It'll strip. The head's not deep enough.
A few ideas:
Drill the head off - use a drill bit slightly larger than the shank of the screw. Then remove the distributor and use a pair of needle-nose ViseGrips to get it out.
Drill a small hole as appropriate and use a standard screw extractor (see
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