Tank Badge mounting screw

[Josh Cox]

Hi all,

Am having a little problem with my Tank Badge mounts.

When removing the tank badges, one of the little screws, apparently 5BA PN: 65-8317, would not come out.

Tried everything in my book if tricks, ended up having to drill the remnants of the head off and trying to drill out and ezy out the remains, no joy. Ended up breaking the tip of my ezy out in the hole.

Now I have a tank badge mount screw hole fouled with a broken screw.

How does the tanks badge screw mount work, is there a void behind the screws ?, are they rivnuts ?.

The part number is a 5BA thread ?, I would have thought it would have been a BSC/BSW ?.

Any suggestions on a fix ?.

[BSA_54A10]

BA seems to be the go with just about all badge mounting nuts even on latter models.
 The thread is in a tube that is braized onto the tank from the inside sort of like a closed end sleeve nut.
So now is a good excuse to buy that Dremel tool that you have always wanted but never been able to justify the price.
Also get the flexible drive shaft and a diamond burr.
Now put on your white dressing gown backwards and play dentist.

DO NOT EVEN THINK OF USEING ONE OF THOSE CHEAP CHINEESE NO BRAND RIP OFFS USUALLY FOUND AT CAR PARTS SHOPS, WALLMART , HARBOUR FREIGHT and other sewerage merchants.
They do not have a bearing in the end of the flex drive and wobble around like a bowl of jelly.
The real deal is precise enough to write the Lords Preyer on the head of a pin.
In 15 minutes to 1/2 hour you will have removed the easy out and be left with no trace of the old screw but a thin spiral of thread which will come out with a pick.
I have done this hundreds of times, including things like broken idle screws in carbys and even striped head screws in my laptops, the real deal is just that accurate. A slow job, don't force the tool.
The big problem with them is like most good quality tools they are heavy and trying to do fine work with that big lump of metal on the other end of the burr is not easy and then there is gyroscopic forces generated by the armature spinning at 30,000 rpm , which is why you need the flexible drive shaft.
I have 5 of them in my workshop, one on every bench and one on the drill press ( use it instead of a center punch) and one for the tool box and have just fixed the broken shear coupling in my first one that I bought in 1982.

[trevinoz]

I had one a while ago that was badly rusted and had no thread to speak of and when I finally removed it the thread was stuffed. I drilled it, carefully, to a larger size and tapped it, made a plug and Loctited it in, and drilled and tapped to original BA size. This was on a post '60 pear-shape tank with a 3BA thread and not so fragile as 5BA.
Trev.

[Josh Cox]

Thanks Gents,

Worked a treat, unfortunately I have one of those el-cheapo dremels, picked it up at a garage sale for $2, my wife has promised me a nice one for my B'day ( I guess she thinks if she buys a really nice one, thats all I'll be expecting, Hmmm ?).

As to your 15-30 minutes, bollocks, four hours.

P.S. I think they were stupid putting a 5BA screw in when 1/8 BSC (BSW) would keep with the theme of a stiff upper lip British Bike, so I'm going to make it 1/8 BSC/BSW (40TPI).

[BSA_54A10]

Good to see that it is out.
Also good to see that you are a man with both a good sense of humour and patience.
The trick to getting things done with the Dremil is good quality burrs.
I got a set of diamond burrs at an auction during the last recession and have been using them for years.
The ones that came with the elcheapo copy that I bought to replace the real one with the broken shear linkage also had a set of diamond burrs none of which survived their first use.
I can cut 3 to 4 lengths from 1" square tube with 1 genuine Dremil cut off wheel as compared to 2 wheels per cut for the cheapies.
I originally bought it to sharpen my chainsaw and the original stones were good for about 1/2 dozen or so sharpenings but the ones that came with the cheapies broke before I had don the first chain.

Now for mounting the new badges.
Stick the rubber backing on with double sided carpet tape ( the really thin stuff ) that way the only weight on the mounting screw will be that of the plastic badge.
Put a thin O ring under the head of the mounting screw to prevent the screw cracking the badge and also stops the screw undoing 

[Josh Cox]

Rubber backing ?, does it have a part number for these badges ?, I was going to use double sided tape or Sikaflex.