The left latch on Abigail's #2 panel was getting very stiff due to corrosion of the aluminium casting. I decided to remove the latch and clean things up.
Snapped the heads off both 5mm torx head mounting bolts with very little effort.
The bolts were threaded all the way to the head. After soaking in penetrating oil for a week, I welded on a nut to the top of the remaining "studs". Still wouldn't move.
So I ground off the welds, removed the nuts and made some custom nuts to fit the studs. Drilled out the handle mounting holes to 5/16". Turned some 1/2" hex bar to 0.300" for 0.620" long, followed by 0.200" turned down to 0.490" diameter, and parted off 0.150" past that, leaving a bit of a hex head for a wrench. Drilled and tapped 5mm x 0.8. Assembled over anti-seize, of course.
Whew! Crisis averted.
Snapped the heads off both 5mm torx head mounting bolts with very little effort.
The bolts were threaded all the way to the head. After soaking in penetrating oil for a week, I welded on a nut to the top of the remaining "studs". Still wouldn't move.
So I ground off the welds, removed the nuts and made some custom nuts to fit the studs. Drilled out the handle mounting holes to 5/16". Turned some 1/2" hex bar to 0.300" for 0.620" long, followed by 0.200" turned down to 0.490" diameter, and parted off 0.150" past that, leaving a bit of a hex head for a wrench. Drilled and tapped 5mm x 0.8. Assembled over anti-seize, of course.
Whew! Crisis averted.
