Autococker Rebuilds: Round Ram Housing Unthreading

[masterchiefmurph]

Some of the cockers I’ve bought over the last year come with rams with no flats under the housing (Shocktech, Wgp stock) and it’s puzzling me on how to get these off without scratching the shit of them. I’ve heard strap wrench and vise and I’ve tried those and the wrench is either too small or the ram is just really really old and possibly thread locked on and it dosent wanna move. The next best thing I’ve heard is using a soldering iron to heat the threads up so they come off easier but I’m hesitant to try that myself without first asking how the pros do it and if you have a better method?


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[OpusX]

Heat gun and soft jaw pliers 😉

[Daltech]

Wrong. Wrong. Not a heat gun, why not just use a butane torch and melt the aluminum.

A soldering iron is the best way, get a screw or something you don’t care about and red loctite the shit out of it. Put it in a vice or something that can take the heat so you don’t burn yourself and practice the soldering iron technique, you’ll learn the characteristics of loctite and how it breaks down and at what Temperature you interpret that as being. Hot is different for everyone because it’s a subjective. See how long you have until it re-hardens. Remember, only heat the male treads, the female threads have much more surface and mass, making it more difficult for the heat to transfer and melt the loctite. If you heat the front block, it will disperse the heat evenly to the entire block. As opposed to only the male treads. With a thin soldering iron tip, you could heat the ram from the ram arm side where the arm comes out.

Soft jaw pliers is correct. Be aware, the teeth on pliers will penetrate bicycle inner tubes, hoses and sometimes thinner leather. I suggest flat jawed or curved smooth jaw pliers. Also, heated items can melt through hoses and bicycle inner tubes fyi.

[Toestr]

Agreed. If you don't have soft jaws you can cut a piece of rubber or leather. Old garden hoses and cheapo leather belts are my go to.

[Blackmagic71]

I’ve had good luck using this without damaging/scratching up the ram.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07DKXVVQX?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

[Daltech]

I got a pair of these and they scratched my stuff. The contact points are only on the edges of the angles. These are worse than vice grips. Less surface contact with the item. It’s literally putting a circle in a square vice. I learned my lesson and went with smooth jawed compression pliers with soft jaw inserts. Put a little bit of heat and that rubber surface coating turns into a paper towel.

[Blackmagic71]

I’ve used this on a couple rams so far without issue.

[Daltech]

I say use the right tool for the job.

I also don’t use my leather man as a screwdriver or my
iPhone as a flashlight.

If anyone wants to buy my “pen pliers”, they are free. Just pay shipping. I got them because compression pliers took a week to arrive and I wanted to take stuff apart that day. My impatience cost me priceless WDP mini regs that got chewed up by using “pen pliers”.

Another negative, the diameter is fixed for woodworking applications, you can never get the correct size like you can with compression pliers, it’s coincidental that the ram diameter is similar to the pen. It’s the wrong application and only works for items exactly that diameter range.

[Daltech]

https://www.amazon.com/8603-7-Pliers-Wrench-180-35mm-1-3/dp/B00A8SHULG/ref=asc_df_B00A8SHULG?mcid=72207ea72d5c3d89ad95836ef745cd96&hvocijid=1692861301263687162-B00A8SHULG-&hvexpln=73&tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=721245378154&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=1692861301263687162&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1014221&hvtargid=pla-2281435180258&psc=1

compression pliers for the win.

[Daltech]

To be honest, I can unthread properly de-loctited components with my fingers, most tolerances do not require wrenches unless the treads are dirty or have been cross threaded. Loctite gets a bad wrap in part because I don’t think most people know it’s there in the first place, and then if they do, they don’t know what it is or how to remove it correctly.

I’m from the school of loose three way and loose ram anyways.

[Daltech]

I’ve had good luck using this without damaging/scratching up the ram.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07DKXVVQX?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

I wouldn’t trust “pen pliers” against that popsicle red white and blue black magic chrome ram. Just sayin…

[Psycho91]

I use these vice grips with the rubber covering on them