So what do the experts do?

[GatorMike]

I droped my crankcase off at the machine shop this morning and thought I would use the next couple of afternoons to clean up the old parts. I was wondering on the subject of nuts & bolts how you guys clean them up before putting things back together. Of course some of the ones near the bottom are rusted bad and probably should be replaced. Some have rusty heads or a little rust in the thread area, is it worth the time to wire brush or sandblast and paint the rusted areas? I'm sure most can just be cleaned up and reused as is.

 

[rodbolt]

Re: So what do the experts do?

most can be lightly wire brushed and reused if the heads,shank and thread areas are not pitted.
NEVER reuse the rodbolts.

 

[Texasmark]

Re: So what do the experts do?

most can be lightly wire brushed and reused if the heads,shank and thread areas are not pitted.
NEVER reuse the rodbolts.

Reason is they stretch when torqued (no need for a lock washer which is undesirable in that application anyway) and pre stretched (old) ones are unreliable.

On the rest of the stuff, if you are cash/parts availability strapped, a tap/die on the bolt/hole with some antiseize will work if the head is intact. If a bad head, I would scrap the bolt.

But I'm not an xpert. Just a senior citizen (older pfart) with nothing better to do and it's too cold, wet and nasty outside to farm.

Mark