A life saver

I think we’ve all had that sinking feeling as we do up a bolt and it relaxes and feels doughy. Suddenly you think “oh no”.

This recently happened to me when I was putting the timing cover back on my Matchless G50. One of the 2BA cap screws went limp. The first question I would ask is why on earth did anyone put a 2BA thread in electrified dirt otherwise known as magnesium. Why not a Whitworth or National Coarse? I’m sure some of the boffins out there will enlighten me.

Before I went too much further, I had a look at Classic Fasteners’ website and blow me down, they sell Power Coil 2BA thread repair kits.

A quick bit of keyboarding and I had one ordered. It arrived within a week. Well done Classic Fasteners. (www.classicfasteners.com.au)

Not that it mattered, but the cost was $122 plus shipping. The kit comprises a special drill, in this case a 4.9mm and a tap the size of the outside of a thread repair coil, 20 thread coils and the insert tool. It’s all very simple. All you do is drill out the damaged thread, tap it with the new tap and use the inserting tool to wind the new thread in. Once you have it just below the surface level remove the insert tool and use another little tool to snap off the tang at the bottom of the insert.

As part of my race preparation, I remove the timing cover after every meeting, so the likelihood of another damaged thread is very likely. Now it doesn’t matter. A life saver. Where were we before thread repair kits came along?