Removing Staked Pins

[sign216]

The three bolts are held in with pins, but the pins are "staked in place." How do you remove them?

The bolts to this Major safe lid drag in-out, so that the lock mechanism can hardly turn. I'd like to remove the bolts and clean up the rust and grit, but I've never encountered holding pins that refuse to budge like these. They hold with more force than my mother-in-law's opinions.

Any ideas? Vise grips haven't worked.

Joe

[billdeserthills]

Better lube?
https://www.amazon.com/Super-Slick-Stuf ... 9270&psc=1

[sign216]

Better lube?
https://www.amazon.com/Super-Slick-Stuf ... 9270&psc=1

Bill,
Better lube is always better, but there's rust and debris in the bolt channels, and that's the real problem.

If I can't remove the bolts, I'll flush them w solvent and re-lube, but that's my fall-back position.

Joe

[billdeserthills]

Maybe some rust neutralizer could help


https://www.walmart.com/ip/Loctite-Exte ... n/21266402

[00247]

They hold with more force than my mother-in-law's opinions.

Any ideas?

Get a new mother-in-law?

[BlueLock]

Those little buggers are called Groove Pins. They pretty much need to be hammered out... but you cannot because you're on the wrong side...

I also found that just pulling on them with vice grips does not work so well. This is what I came up with to get them out, and it works very well - A slide hammer attached to vice grips... (I made an adapter to attach a slide hammer to my Vise Grips). Get a good grip on the pin and one or two firm whacks gets them out quickly and easily.



For what it's worth, I had this exact question a few years ago - My whole post on this: Major TL-15 Groove Pin removal. But, I am now using Super Lube PTFE instead of white lithium as recommended by Bill. It is definitely better.

You do want to get those bolts out and clean up the holes and the underside of the cam plate.

[billdeserthills]

You can find a long carriage bolt that screws into your vise grips. Add a couple of fender washers and a weight and make your own set of vise grip pin removal hammer

Probably need to add a nut behind the fender washers to give ya something to hammer the weight against

[sign216]

Wow, great ideas. The vise grip slide hammer set up is genius. I'm adding that to my mental arsenal of tool techniques.

I soaked it Kroil from both sides of the bolt channels. It worked better than advertised, and flushed the area like Hercules cleaning the stables. Bolts are free to move now.

Physically clean and polish is the gold standard, but sometime you have to settle for gold plated, i.e. the penetrate-oil (Kroil) clean.

Thank you all,
Joe

P.S. My mother in law actually isn't so bad, but when dating I had some close calls w mothers who had "terrific ideas."

[MartinHewitt]

Great you got it gold plated!

Regarding the mechanism ... On this one a force on the extended bolts won't transfer to the fence.

[sign216]

Great you got it gold plated!

Regarding the mechanism ... On this one a force on the extended bolts won't transfer to the fence.

Great point about force on the bolts. On the other lock it could cause problems; testing on the bench is fine, but once mounted in the safe body a possibility that it can't be removed because a bolt is resting on the safe body.