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Cleaning paraffin wax off prop bolts...

Michael Burbidge

Michael Burbidge

Well Known Member
I made a mistake reinstalling my saber prop extension. I put paraffin wax on the bolts that attach the extension to the hub. You're supposed to put a drop of blue locktite on those bolts.

Paraffin wax is for the bolts that attach the prop to the extension, and of course those bolts are safety wired. Don't know what I was thinking.

Anyway how would you suggest cleaning the wax off the bolts and threads on the hub? Is there a chemical that would dissolve paraffin wax? MEK, acetone, etc.

Thanks,
Michael-
 
Coleman fuel

Coleman camping fuel works well for dissolving paraffin. Also works well for cleaning your belly without dissolving the paint. And it's milder than acetone, MEK, lacquer thinner, etc.

pACE3-19385259enh-z7.jpg
 
Flange bolts...

I'm talking about the extension to flange bolts. On the short extensions made for Catto props these bolts cannot be safety wired, because the bolt heads sit in a hole that is the depth of the bolt head.

I will call Saber today, but I'm pretty sure that when I originally installed the extension the folks at Saber told me to use blue loctite on these bolts.

Followup on coleman fuel. Does that leave a residue that would inhibit the blue loctite from setting up?

Thanks,
Michael-
 
Confirmed with Saber

I confirmed with Saber this morning. The extension to flange bolts on my particular extension should be installed with a couple of drops of blue loctite.

They suggested cleaning the paraffin off with a wire brush.

My extension is the one shown on the left in this picture.

http://www.sabermfg.com/about.htm

Michael-
 
Michael Burbidge said:
I confirmed with Saber this morning. The extension to flange bolts on my particular extension should be installed with a couple of drops of blue loctite.

They suggested cleaning the paraffin off with a wire brush.

My extension is the one shown on the left in this picture.

http://www.sabermfg.com/about.htm

Michael-
Click to expand...

I talked to Sabre-Sam about this too. I cleaned the prob flange threads with a nylon gun bore brush (bristle type, not loop type) and mineral spirits for and the bolt threads in a bowl. Blew dry with air pressure and blue loctite. I admit to wondering about the removability of these.

Edit: 2.5" solid spacer for Hartzell. No provision for safety wire.
 
Last edited:
I'm not totally familiar with this assembly, but if the bolts are critical enough to need loctite, then I wouldn't just wire brush the components. Any of the solvents discussed previously will clean the parts better and vastly enhance the effectiveness of threadlocking compounds.

Don
 
dtw_rv6 said:
I'm not totally familiar with this assembly, but if the bolts are critical enough to need loctite, then I wouldn't just wire brush the components. Any of the solvents discussed previously will clean the parts better and vastly enhance the effectiveness of threadlocking compounds.

Don
Click to expand...

As would the locktite primer. Blue locktite won't give any problem when it's time to remove them, even red in my experience.
And sorry about the bad advice on the paraffin, but in my defense I did read it on the internet!
Tim Andres
 
Understood...

No problem Tim. The Q&A page on the Sabre website doesn't address the extensions type that I have. It's been like that forever. Now I remember calling Sabre to get the original instructions concerning the blue loctite.

Michael-
 
Both

Agreed Don. I'm going to use both a wire brush with the white gas solvent.

Thanks for all the replies!

The new B&C starter looks really nice, but it was way more painful to install. There was no way to get the bolts on without removing my prop, ring gear and alternator!

Michael-
 
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