The screws in the steering columb bottom cover plate have siezed solid and the impact driver has just chewed them up. I want to remove them and lift the cover plate up so paint gets under there when the bus gets resprayed I want to avoid using heat on them if i can as under the cab floor has been painted and waxoyl undersealed Im thinking of cutting a slot into the heads with a grinder and trying to wind them out that way or grinding the heads of them and trying to wind the remains out with the mole grips Does anyone have any other suggestions?
If it were me I'd grind the heads off, lift the cover up and tie it to the column then first try a little release oil on each screw before using grips to turn the screws in a turn if possible to crack the rust before attempting to unscrew them.
Give them a good squirt underneath, then use whatever means to try to unscrew them. If the heads shear off, you'll have to drill and retap the captive bolts underneath.
Ive soaked them in plus gas allready a few times and tried the molegrips on them but the molegrips wont bite They aint the best pair so i may have to invest in a better quality pair If i hadent painted and undersealed under the cab floor allready id just weld a nut on the top of them and wind them out
Chop the heads off with a bolster, ignore the shattered stubs and fit it back wonky with self tappers.
A decent pair of grips are worth their weight in gold, they save soo much hassle in terms of not chewing up studs/nuts. To anyone looking to buy decent grips for general use or as welding clamps, Vyse grips are the best by a mile (Snap on also sell them on their vans) and start at about £15 a pair. Cheap grips will always fail at some point, whether that be the jaws snapping, release arm snapping or jamming, rivets breaking, jaws twisting out of alignment, jaws losing any kind of bite etc etc, As an apprentice 15 years ago it was a point made to me early on to only buy Vyse grips, I've not managed to break a pair yet, and they've been well tested.
