Chas Newport - The Rusty Nut Bible: How to undo seized, damaged or broken nuts, bolts, studs and screws.

How to Undo Seized,

Damaged or Broken Nuts,

Bolts, Studs & Screws

By

Chas Newport

The Rusty Nut Bible EN-UK 3.0

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References to all brand names and trademarks are mentioned under the principle of nominative fair use. I'm not a representative of any brands except NRTFM.com, my publishing company. None of my opinions have been paid for in cash, freebies or other favours.

I didn't do this research to write a book; but to finish a job because we were too poor to pay a professional. The problem: a seized brake calliper. A few failed attempts with a open ended spanner (crescent wrench) had rounded off two corners on the bolt head. I cleaned and lubed, left it soaking and lubed again. Still, the bolt stayed frozen in position. So I looked online what I found created the first draft of this book. Since then I've added dozens of new hints and tips and deeper information.

Once you understand, you don't need to remember.

Two things before we start.

This book is in UK English:

Sceptical of his innocence, they analysed the coloured aluminium disc to mount a defence of his behaviour.

In a few places we've repeated information, so you dont have to flick back and forth. We will repeat warnings in situ, in case you dip in from the Triple Jump Index during a job.

When I mention we in the body of the book, I'm talking with you, the readers. Here, Im referring to myself and my wife, Sooz. She works two jobs, devoting her weekends to proofreading, photography and building web pages. When you re-read your own writing, you recall what you wrote, often missing your own mistakes. Without her fresh eyes, there would be many more typos, errors and omissions. There may still be a few, but weve both worked hard to make a high-quality product. Nobodys perfect, if you find any problems we missed, please get in touch. You can contact us at https://nrtfm.com or https://therustynutbible.com .

A sword shown in text or under a picture is an external link you can click or tap for further knowledge or to buy an item. You can see every link on a single page by browsing: Link Summary. All other links are internal jumps to other sections.

The last point before we start is safety. People mock health and safety as bureaucratic and weak, but I dont think thats right. You require discipline, patience and nerve to stop under pressure from others or from time constraints. A friend watched a man die before the ambulance arrived, because he didnt attach his safety-harness to the line. I learnt from that, we all should.

This is one of those subjects where solutions are common knowledge. But popularity and repetition don't mean something is the best right or even right, it just means people think it is.

It isn't true shaving makes hair thicker or its growth faster. The illusion occurs because a day of growth is a greater proportion of a short hair and shows more against bare skin

It isn't true fingernails and hair grow after you die. The grisly truth is, that you dehydrate and your skin shrinks away from them.

It isn't true we don't use 100% of our brain, we use all of it for various tasks and activities. We just dont use the whole thing at the same time.

The common knowledge solutions for rusty fasteners are often not solutions at all, but impatient shortcuts. Shortcuts with a higher chance of failure than a more restrained approach. All involve brute force and heat.

Collateral damage possibilities are everywhere. Painted parts have many layers of inhibitor, primer, undercoat, paint and lacquer. You may even have rubber, plastic or composites nearby. Vehicles have hoses, wiring, sensors and chips in everything.

Internet nugget one is just to increase leverage until it moves. More torque force only requires a longer lever or a heavy friend. Sometimes the bolt snaps and the tools go clattering to the floor and you or your heavy friend get hurt. If it snaps flush you have a stump in a hole. For a protruding stump it might not come off the remains of the shaft, hindered by adjacent parts. With that blocking you, you may struggle for access to cut the rest of it. You're in real trouble

Internet nugget two is to grind off the fastener head. But a large diameter spinning disc is not a scalpel. Even when access lets you use something this big, youll leave a mark here and there. With my brake calliper, bolt-head removal was a non-starter. I had no room for a saw or grinder, plus brake hoses I couldn't move because of a lack of slack. And it suffers all the same problems as brute force with a protruding stump.

Internet nugget three is to heat the fastener you are struggling to extract. It must glow cherry red, as no other shade of fruit will do, apparently. This is the ultimate illustration of Internet wisdom because it has a grain of truth at the core, it actually works well for a nut on a bolt with good access.

But a bolt is not an expandable ring, its an enclosed cylinder. Expanded, the bolt is wider than the hole, making it tighter. To release pressure, you must make the hole wider, so you need to warm the surrounding metal. The large mass acts as a heat-sink, conducting it away from the point you are warming. In my example, thats partly what a brake calliper does dissipate heat soak from the disc and pads to stop the brake fluid boiling.

My brake calliper presented other difficulties. In a car the rustiest components are underneath, but fragile objects share that space. Brake hoses, bushes, and wiring for sensors in ABS and traction control appear here at the places they attach.

Heating an enclosed bolt can bring benefits after it cools. The expansion and contraction cycle may help crack the rust and dirt bonding the head and upper part of the thread. But it's still risky. The ten steps below have six highly effective, complementary actions to try before we resort to that level of risk. Parts of my brake calliper came free at steps 4 and 6. No flames, no collateral damage, no bleeding.

Heres an outline of the ten-step sequence you can download as a sample without buying the complete book:

We wish you the best of luck and a safe solution to your problem. If you want additional help, heres a summary of the details in rest of the book.

For each of the ten steps, we give more detail on how and why it works. Knowing why is important for two reasons. First, you dont have to remember things you understand. Second, understanding lets you create new solutions of your own.