Zippi

My Feedback: (10)

I used Permatex High Strength Threadlocker Automotive Grade (Red) on the two bolts that hold my landing gear on and it worked great, the gear never came loose. Maybe it worked to good. I am now replacing the aluminum landing gear with CF and I can't get the two bolts loose. They are the round head philips head bolts and I have just about stripped the heads off trying to get them loose. I tried using a pair of Vise-Grips but there is not much to grab on to. Any ideas on how to get these two bolts loose???

BarracudaHockey

My Feedback: (11)

I'd use a soldering iron to heat it up. You might also take a dremel cut off wheel and carefully cut one of the slots a little deeper and widen it across the bolt head to get a large straight slot on it. Red locktite is for permanant installations, next time consider blue.

I would make a straight slot, heat the bolt carefully with the soldering iron and see if you can break it loose that way.

Zippi

My Feedback: (10)

I don't have a dremel tool but I do have a soldering iron. I'll try heating up the bolt tomorrow and see if it will break loose.

Scar

My Feedback: (3)

I can think of a number of instances where I'd be advising you to drill the bolt out, or grind the head off and drill the stub out. Red Loctite is usually pretty tough to unstick. If your steel bolt is adhered to a thread insert or blind nut with Red Loctite, you may be repairing the insert hole before you're done.

Let us know how you come out with this. I'm thinking if your solder iron gets that bolt hot enough to soften up the adhesive, the wood around the insert or blind nut is going to be pretty hot, too.

Best wishes,
Dave Olson

JoeAirPort

My Feedback: (41)

You could always just Dremmel off the bolt heads and remove the blind nuts. Put new blind nuts in. Not that big of a deal IMO.

Zippi

My Feedback: (10)

Thanks for the ideas guys. I'll try something tomorrow and post what I did or didn't do to cure this problem.

Roby

Use the soldering iron as suggested in prior responses.
It will work. Next time use the low strength stuff ,(222,purple)
I think you will find that it's better suited for the application.

Regards
Roby

Zippi

My Feedback: (10)

As I was drinking my coffee this morning I was thinking of my first step to getting the screws loose from the landing gear. I thought I'd try the heat method first. I didn't have any luck with the heat and maybe it was that my heat gun my be a little to small for the job. As I said before, I don't have a Dremmel tool but I did have a cone shaped stone that fits in my drill. I fliped the plane upside down and started gridding with the stone. In less than 10 minutes I had both screw heads off and then it was just a matter of popping the landing gear off and using the studs that were left sticking up to knock out the blind nuts. All thats left is a trip to the LHS sometime this week for some new blind nuts and bolts and my plane is ready for the Mall Show to show off her new CF legs . This time I think I'll use the blue threadlock. Thanks for the help guys.