MTFCA Forum

I'm faced with having to remove both the pedal and cam on my low speed shaft, then replace the shaft with a new one. I attacked the cam pin first, grinding down the head and attempted to heat, then drive the pin out......it won't budge, so it looks like drilling it out is the only solution. So, what size are these pins? 3/16" or some decimal size?

Now, I've never had a great deal of luck drilling out pins. Oh, sure, I get them drilled but no matter how hard I try a small portion of the pin remains in the hole. In other words, the hole is not perfectly straight so I may have to just drill to the next oversize and replace with an oversize pin.

Any advice is appreciated!

You could buy a pin from one of the vendors and measure it before drilling. I would not give up on using heat, though. When things are really tough I use WD-40 AFTER heating. I've successfully removed many fasteners this way. I use WD-40 in a squirt bottle, not aerosol since the aerosol propellant is flammable. (I buy WD-40 in gallon cans for use on my equipment.) Heat the connection, and while hot, squirt WD-40 in the joint. It will be drawn into the joint as it cools. Let the pin cool down and keep hammering on it. Good luck.

That rivet is 1/4" diameter.

If you carefully grind down the end flush to the pedal, with clean grinder, spray a bit of oil on the surface and most times you can see the circular outline of the rivet shaft.

Then center punch and drill into the rivet about 1/3 of the way deep. Select a strong punch the size of the hole and bang the rivet with large mallet and it will punch out.

Replaced all of the pedal shafts last summer in my hogshead restoration. What worked for me was to cut off the old shaft close to the pedal, center punch the pin on both sides as Dan describes then drilled into the pin from both sides until I hit the shaft. I used sequentially larger drill bits working up to a 1/4". Then I drove the remnant of the shaft out of the pedal. Don't do what I did on my first attempt and try to drill all the way through the pin. Some of them aren't exactly straight when they go in and you might mess up a pedal, like I did.

Thanks for the information everyone. I'll try drilling/driving as suggested........wish me luck!

That's what arc welders are for - repairing the holes !

What Dan T. said. Dave

George, my method is a combination of sorts from the above tips. I grind the rivet flush and then drill it with a small drill, but only about 3/4 of the way through. It even works well when your initial drill hole is off-centre. Just step up the drill size and re-drill until the drill hole almost cuts the side out of the rivet. Then a snug pin punch can be used to drive the pin out. The hole you drill keeps the punch in place, and the solid bottom of the hole takes the effort applied by your hammer. It still pays to support the underside of the shaft/cam when driving the pin out.

Hope this helps.
Allan from down under.

Well, here's the final result...

First of all, I finally gave up on trying to drive the pins out. Heat, a punch and large hammer had NO effect. Rusted pretty solid, so now we drill them out.

Had to cut the old shaft in order to remove the slow speed cam from the hog's head. Carefully lined everything up in my drill press, center drilled it and began using progressively bigger bits up to 1/4". When I removed the cam from the vise, I was delighted to see that it was an almost perfect job. Easily close enough for the new pin.

The pedal, well, that's another story. Again I lined everything thing up and drilled as before, but this time the exit hole was off by about 1/4 of the pin diameter. Off to the welding shop this morning! I'll have them weld up the off center hole, then wait until my replacement shaft gets here. I'll place the pedal on the shaft and redrill, using the straight hole and shaft hole as drill bushings.

Once I actually install everything again I'll "heat and beat" the ends of both pins. THAT oughta' hold!

George, that's why I go up in drill sizes in small increments. If you check each hole you can keep track of the drill opening up the side of the pin, and stop before damage is done. I learned this trick by doing as you did,except i was working on a handbrake lever and cross shaft.

Allan from down under.