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Atta boy!
And ya, we don’t suffer here like the snow-folk do...but I think sometimes we’re the ones who fall prey to it because we don’t think about it much.
I discovered just how one really sloppy drive through Silverton post-road-treatment rain can wreak havoc on all sorts o stuff. Nasty...
Friendly, Captain-Obvious reminder to folks lurking here:
“Have you re-sealed/protected your own KDSS valves yet this season???”
Don’t wait.
Road treatments are happening...even if not in your home town...
Good luck! Welding worked fit me on the last one, I'm just hoping I can avoid it this time. My snap-on bit and replacement hex parts should be here soon, daily kroil soakings in the meantime...@CharlieS I'm in the middle of the same nightmare!.. I broke a couple of Cheaper sockets now I've got a couple of snap-on's.. good thing is they'll twist before they break and the hex part is replaceable. I will probably go ahead and weld mine as nothing I've tried has worked
Yes, this is how I've done it before, but I was left with a massive lean, so eventually had to get the valve opened anyway. No amount of time, parking on blocks, etc fixed it. It is what I'll do again if a week of soaking, better sockets, and other strategies fails. I was hoping to avoid it with this newer vehicle though.Thinking outside the box, what about sidestepping the KDSS valve completely? Or one valve is enough to get by. We know the KDSS system will ultimately equalize on its own in a few days?
Install the suspension and use other strategies to line things up to bolt down. Can loosen up the KDSS bar frame brackets to get some more play. Use a jack under the LCAs to line things up. Ratchet straps. Lever bars. It might all be a pain but perhaps less pain than dealing with the KDSS valve. There's at least one shop that I heard of doing it this way.
Agreed. It it like a twice daily ritual fir me to soak it with kroil, and give another try. I'm up to five snapped bits now. Fortunately none of the broken ends have gotten permanently lodged in the hole. Snap on bit arrives Friday, so it is helping me with my patience.It will work, but with continued low effort the problem might be fixed and make all that extra stuff unnecessary.
At first glance this idea seems a little crazy but with some thought I’m warming up to it.My KDSS hex bolts work just fine. But---if they did not I would consider drilling straight up through the threads (between the bolt and the housing) with a small bit. The threads on the bolt do not provide the seal, they only keep the bolt in place on the actual seals. If you drill up two or so threads (there is an image somewhere on MUD that will tell you how many threads make sense) then Kroil could better penetrate. Maybe. Once you have a hole you can pressurize the drilled hole and encourage the Kroil to go the last mile. I like Kroil and it almost never fails me. But it has to reach in to work. If that failed I would just replace the KDSS value assembly and mark it down in my my lessons-learned book.
I have had shockingly good results with welding to get stuck bolts/nuts loose.. and people here have had it work well on KDSS. You could also monitor the temp in the o-ring area of the valve body to try and avoid damaging them. The big question would be what they are made of.. if regular Buna-N they are only 100% to about 250F. Viton, which seems unlikely here as it is significantly more expensive and usually used in moderate temp or for certain chemicals that don't play nicely with cheaper elastomers, is good to 400F.My latest idea is to put a suitable nut up there against the shutter valve screw, just crank up the amperage on my mig welder and put the heat to it with a low wire speed until things get nice and red. It might weld the nut on, and if it does, so be it. It might also just make things bloody hot and get some good expansion/contraction going with no welding, poor/no penetration. Unless I frag the internal o-ring, I don't think there's much harm in trying this.
I see where you guys are going with the drill idea, and like it, but I think that might have to keep that in reserve for now.
Oh, and I don't know if I'm just seeing things, but the kroil seems to wick up the threads.