Stripped Bolt Suggestions

[racclarkson@gmail.com]

I removed and cleaned the slime from my four Racor 1000 filter assemblies. It appears a PO over tightened a couple of the 1/4 20 bolts holding the bowl bracket to the housing body. So now I have fuel weeping from one of my units. I can chase the threads next week, but I feel like that won't be enough to allow me to snug it up like the other bolts. Who's been there and done that successfully?

[bigbill]

i think there is room for a nut on top where the bolt goes in. maybe drill it out and put a nut on it. not ideal but a lot better than replacing the housing.

[Blaine Thorpe]

Is there enough room for a Helicoil?

[racclarkson@gmail.com]

Not really enough room to drill out for a nut. Maybe enough there for a helicoil. Have to take another look. Maybe could drill through and tap the extra depth.

[Andy B]

There is probably enough meat left in the housing to drill and tap to the next size larger Diameter bolt.

[Seapig100]

May be able to go to a metric tap.

[Avenger]

Helicoil is almost universally the best solution. But,.. is the threaded bore longer than the bolt? Sometimes a longer bolt can grab the remaining threads. Requires restraint when torquing.

Steel into aluminium in the marine environment is always an issue.

[racclarkson@gmail.com]

I hate mixing metric with SAE. I like the idea of trying go a little deeper. You can always screw it in with bracket off to verify depth. A new bolt might also have sharper threads. I'm not real good on restraint. Looks like drill and tap a bit deeper and then helicoil for plan B. Thx for the input.

[bobk]

I haven't had mine apart in some years, but the bolts look pretty long in the diagrams so you may not get enough extra bite by just drilling out the remaining housing and threading it. And there may not be enough meat for a helicoil. I'd approach it by first trying the steps that are least likely to ruin the housing. So drill and tap first. If that doesn't get you enough bite, see the next paragraph.

The bowl is under vacuum (OK reduced pressure) so the only stress on the bolt is to hold a light weight part against a gasket just firmly enough to make a seal. That would lead me to try re-forming a thread with a good metal-filled epoxy and if it doesn't take the stress, put a small clamp on that one hole.

Bobk

[Boatsb]

A new filter is not hard to get. You probably can get the new housing for about a hundred bucks and have no more issues. Then again the idea of fixing the old while spending hours and hours of time and energy to have a lesser repair seems to be too popular these days.

Change out the bad part and move on. The time you save is worth more than the money you save with trying to fix the old one. And when something else on it breaks your That much further behind.