Is the season where gear gets left assembled and then months pass. My bolts were well and truly seized (stainless), so I had a bit of a task getting them undone.
Prevention better than cure - here are some anti seize pastes Best anti-seize
In terms of what I discovered.
Save the head: If the head of the bolt is still good, then be careful not to make it worse. The variance between bits is pretty crazy. If it is truly stuck, stop with the shitty L tool and get a good brand like Wera, I found the Wera Torx socket bit the best. Making it worse is bad. If you only have a slipping tool, you can fill it with a rubber band, electrical tape, nitrile glove or even toilet paper.
Freeze spray (eg “Crack-it Shock Release Spray”) with penetrating corrosion dissolver is probably the best solution, freeze shrinks the bolt so that the chemicals can get to the corrosion. Corrosion X alone didn’t seem to penetrate.
Impact driver: If you’ve ruined the head of the bolt, then one of these Impact Driver things is the best way to loosen it without slipping. Make sure you have it set to L for loosen, and then hit it with a soft mallet. Use a higher quality Wera socket bit, the ones that come with it are pretty bad.
I wish I had this a couple of months ago. Ended up having to drill the bolt, and having to put an helicoil. The problem is that it wasn’t completely centered and now my stab doesn’t fit all the way into the fuselage if I put on the screws. There’s 1-2mm of distance but it’s still usable.
If I knew, I would have tried the freeze spray + corrosion dissolver combo, seems pretty user friendly too.
I must add, as a first approach, if you have a “bad” fit, you can fill it with a rubber band, electrical tape or even toilet paper. For how simple and easy it is, it can help some use cases.
great post.
I’m a huge fan of Kroil for penetrating oil, I haven’t needed freeze spray, but it might be a good idea if you’re in a rush. A good penetrating oil and wait 24hrs has always worked for me. it takes time!
in terms of anti-seize, I lived by TefGel for years with great results, but I decided to stop using products with forever chemical PTFE components. I’ve been using Lanocote which literally animal fat. It smell terrible, but in my opinion works significantly better than TefGel - I rarely have to re-apply it whereas with TefGel I was lubing up the fasteners all the time.
