Repair tip that may be handy

[JDgreen]

Wanted you guys to see what I tried yesterday....was installing a trailer hitch on one of our cars, it's a unit-body car, had to drill a pair of 1/2 inch holes in the underside where the body is boxed in, the holes had to be accessed from the openings at the rear, and you had to somehow install a half-inch grade 5 carriage bolt and a rectangular backing sleeve in the drilled holes about a FOOT from the end of the openings in the rear of the boxed in section.

The instructions that came with the hitch said to "fishwire" the hardware assemblies into place. DUH.

What I did, shown for illustration here, the parts are not to scale. First, I used hot melt glue to make the bolts/sleeves one solid assembly. Then I tied dental floss to the assemblies, in case I needed to pull them out of the boxed area, if they came out of my claw pick up tool. Well, I didn't need to pull them out, by having the hardware glued together to keep the two parts together, it took less than 20 seconds to seat each one using the pick up tool to get them in the holes I had drilled. For those without such a pick up tool, you could cut a long strip of stiff cardboard, cut a small hole in it, then push the bolt end thru it and use the cardboard to seat the assembly...then pull the cardboard back out.

If this tip helps just one person with such a situation, I consider passing it along worthwhile.

 

[BKBrown]

I'm sure it will help someone ! :thumbsup:

You can also fish string from the hole back out and secure the string to the end of the bolt in the first couple threads and pull it to and through the hole . :smile:

 

[JDgreen]

I'm sure it will help someone ! :thumbsup:

You can also fish string from the whole back out and secure the string to the end of the bolt in the first couple threads and pull it to and through the hole . :smile:

Thought about using the dental floss for that purpose but the bolt was such a snug fit in the hole....I thought it would work better if I could keep the bolt and backing plate upright and then it could just drop thru the hole....oh, if I had used floss attached to the bolt that would have made it easier to line it up with the hole....next time I will try that...:thumbsup:

 

[RobertBrown]

Wanted you guys to see what I tried yesterday....was installing a trailer hitch on one of our cars, it's a unit-body car, had to drill a pair of 1/2 inch holes in the underside where the body is boxed in, the holes had to be accessed from the openings at the rear, and you had to somehow install a half-inch grade 5 carriage bolt and a rectangular backing sleeve in the drilled holes about a FOOT from the end of the openings in the rear of the boxed in section.

The instructions that came with the hitch said to "fishwire" the hardware assemblies into place. DUH.

What I did, shown for illustration here, the parts are not to scale. First, I used hot melt glue to make the bolts/sleeves one solid assembly. Then I tied dental floss to the assemblies, in case I needed to pull them out of the boxed area, if they came out of my claw pick up tool. Well, I didn't need to pull them out, by having the hardware glued together to keep the two parts together, it took less than 20 seconds to seat each one using the pick up tool to get them in the holes I had drilled. For those without such a pick up tool, you could cut a long strip of stiff cardboard, cut a small hole in it, then push the bolt end thru it and use the cardboard to seat the assembly...then pull the cardboard back out.

If this tip helps just one person with such a situation, I consider passing it along worthwhile.

I installed a hitch about a year ago. This was not what I would call a uni-body but it had a tube steel frame member and the manufacture supplied 2 helix wound fish wires to pull the bolt through the member and down through the square steel and the hole in the frame. I looked at it and said yea right! "That's never gonna work!!"
Well by the time I was done I thought that fishwire was one of the most ingenius innovations I had ever seen. It work flawlessly.
Did they give you 2 different wires with a helix wound at the end?

 

[JDgreen]

I installed a hitch about a year ago. This was not what I would call a uni-body but it had a tube steel frame member and the manufacture supplied 2 helix wound fish wires to pull the bolt through the member and down through the square steel and the hole in the frame. I looked at it and said yea right! "That's never gonna work!!"
Well by the time I was done I thought that fishwire was one of the most ingenius innovations I had ever seen. It work flawlessly.
Did they give you 2 different wires with a helix wound at the end?

Would have used them had they been supplled, but they were not included. Thanks for your input !!!! The hitch itself was a premium quality, USA made one, they even included extra brackets and hardware for the cars like mine that had a dual exhaust, that I didn't use. Seems to me they would have included the fishwires..will have to contact them.

 

[benski]

Very good tip!:thumbsup:I'll have to include that in my mental inventory of "save your bacon" tips and tricks.:biggrin:

 

[Giles]

I ran into a situation about running a # 12 wire through app. 25 feet of PVC pipe. I tried to push the straightened wire through with bad results.:thumbdown:
I then got a large spool of small nylon string and laid it out straight, tied a small piece of cloth to one end and inserted it into the PVC pipe. I then took my air compressor and blew the string all the way through the Pipe. I then tied the string to the electrical wire and easily pulled the wire through the pipe.
I cut the string--double length, coiled the long end up for storage and left the string inside the pipe for any future use.:thumbsup:

 

[JDgreen]

I ran into a situation about running a # 12 wire through app. 25 feet of PVC pipe. I tried to push the straightened wire through with bad results.:thumbdown:
I then got a large spool of small nylon string and laid it out straight, tied a small piece of cloth to one end and inserted it into the PVC pipe. I then took my air compressor and blew the string all the way through the Pipe. I then tied the string to the electrical wire and easily pulled the wire through the pipe.
I cut the string--double length, coiled the long end up for storage and left the string inside the pipe for any future use.:thumbsup:

Thanks for that tip. I have used a shop vacuum to suck cords and strings thru pipes etc but never thought about the reverse method....

 

[RobertBrown]

Would have used them had they been supplled, but they were not included. Thanks for your input !!!! The hitch itself was a premium quality, USA made one, they even included extra brackets and hardware for the cars like mine that had a dual exhaust, that I didn't use. Seems to me they would have included the fishwires..will have to contact them.

I think I still have them, can post a photo if you like...very effective. It seemed to me the guy that figured that out should have gotten a lot of cash because it really made it possible tyo retrofit a lot of vehicles.