# Gear Box Help



## yort81 (Oct 5, 2012)

I knocked off the heads of the rivets that hold the thread plate on the gear box... thinking that it would be easy to just drill them out afterwards.  WRONG! those little rivet studs are tough... infact...ive broken two drill bits to get about a 1/16 of an inch on the upper left one... also if you notice the lower left hand rivet stud has oil coming out.... could this one have 'tapped' the oil journals that supply oil to the bearings?

Are there any easy fixes for me to get the studs out and or some info on the oil leaking out of the lower stud?


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## rp1950 (Oct 5, 2012)

The fasteners are twist drive rivets. The have a quick spiral to them and when you drive them in the hole they twist and lock in place.
You usually can get them out with a very small pair of vise grips with sharp jaws and twist to the left a 1/4 turn while you pull.
If you have cut the heads off then you have a problem. I don't know other than drilling like your doing.


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## pdentrem (Oct 5, 2012)

Try left handed drills bits, or use a diamond burr to hollow the rivet and use easy out tool to remove turning left, counterclockwise.
Pierre


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## jumps4 (Oct 5, 2012)

heat them fast and blow them out with a torch
i'm not crazy it works you have to be fast 
steve


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## Pacer (Oct 5, 2012)

Look on the inside of the housing, if the holes go all the way through then they are easily driven through with a small punch - if not, they are about impossible to get out.


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## Hawkeye (Oct 6, 2012)

If I were in that situation, I'd follow Pacer's suggestion first. The oil leak gives hope that it may be the case.

If you can't drive them out from the inside, carefully mark out new holes just below the old ones. Keep in mind that there are threads on the drive rivets - you want to be a bit away from them so you don't hit them with any tooling. Drill and tap for #6-32 screws. Plug the new holes with some putty or wood and fill the old ones with JB Weld. Then sand and paint. You can mount your plate a touch lower (or higher) and no one will notice.

Be careful if you are drilling into the casting that you don't plunge through and hit a gear. You can use a depth stop on the bit or slip a piece of sheet metal inside as a guard. Tap carefully with a HSS tap - don't risk breaking a carbon tap on this job. Tap dry.


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## McRuff (Oct 6, 2012)

Try the inside and drive them out if there thru holes, mine were, if yours aren't take a very small burr and put a small groove in the part left and use a small screw driver to twist them out. These pins are drive screws adn are hardened to an extent. 
I wouldn't drill new holes though.


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## yort81 (Oct 6, 2012)

Thank you everyone for your suggestions and technical help.....   The current holes are into the side castings... so punching them out from the opposite side is impossible.  Im thinking of using a small Dremal disk and creating a small slot for a screw driver and try and twist the remaining three out.... Im not sure what to do with the one that i have partially drilled....  Barring that... i think the next move would to be drill new holes and fill the old ones and call it good....

So far... this 'little' problem has stopped any progress for about a week and a half.... it's time to get on with the program and not worry about the small things !!


Thank you again for the wonderful help and suggestions!

Troy


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## Pacer (Oct 7, 2012)

I imagine it would be impossible to drive them from the back side... the idea is to drive them on through from where the head was. But, sometimes they will be drilled into too thick a piece with a bottomed hole.

I have never successfully got one out when the head broke off --- most luck I had was with one of those cheapo diamond 'dental' burrs in the dremel. Managed to get enough out to get about 3-4 threads of 4-40 bottoming tap in and used a cut-off button head screw.


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