Heater Hose Connector

[satxwy]

Well, I'm sure many of you know the pain of the quick disconnect heater hose fitting. Mine (1998 5.7 1500) was leaking so I went ahead to replace it. Tried to take it out nice and easy, but of course it snapped off, leaving the threaded portion still in the manifold. I purchased the special extractor tool off of Amazon and punched it in, but instead of removing the remnants it just bored the hole out a bit wider. So the remnants of the old connector are still in there.

I'm carefully cutting and punching and trying to remove old pieces without dropping any down the hole to the manifold, which may or may not work. This post is half venting/half looking for suggestions. Any tips/experiences I may not have seen elsewhere?

 

[WorkinMan]

Which extractor did you buy? I used this one but I had to smack it in pretty hard. Turned out though.

http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/d....oap?ck=Search_N1679_-1_-1&pt=N1679&ppt=C0374

 

[satxwy]

Yep, that's the one I purchased. I hammered it in as far as it can go, until the end of the tapering, then put a ratchet on it and it wouldn't budge. Added an extension to the ratchet handle to get more leverage, and it finally gave and bore out the inside instead of loosening from the threads. No go.

I'll also mention I had previously soaked the threads multiple times with PB Blaster.


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[sntrym]

You can use a small hacksaw blade to cut into the soft metal (and partially the threads). Make 4 cuts, each across from the other. Pry out the pieces with a small screwdriver. Use a shop vac to get any pieces out that fall in, but you should be able to get a paper towel in there to catch them.

 

[satxwy]

You can use a small hacksaw blade to cut into the soft metal (and partially the threads). Make 4 cuts, each across from the other. Pry out the pieces with a small screwdriver. Use a shop vac to get any pieces out that fall in, but you should be able to get a paper towel in there to catch them.

My biggest concern is losing pieces down the hole. Are you saying put the paper towel in the shop vac hose to catch the pieces? I saw a YouTube video that mentioned doing something like that.

 

[WorkinMan]

I have a mechanic friend that would soak a drill bit in grease and drill it out to the thread's minor dimension and then use a tap, again soaked in grease, and chase the threads. The grease should hold the majority of the chips.

 

[sntrym]

My biggest concern is losing pieces down the hole. Are you saying put the paper towel in the shop vac hose to catch the pieces? I saw a YouTube video that mentioned doing something like that.

The hole should be shallow and flat on the bottom. If you drain the coolant and use a shop vac and paper towel to dry it out, you can get the pieces out that fall in there.

 

[tinfoil_hat]

Plumbers use a tool called a broken nipple extractor. This is a shaft with splines and an eccentric toothed collar that cams over when the tool is engaged and turned counter clockwise. I think the tool you were using looks more like a reamer, which is exactly how it worked. The nipple extractor puts a lot more leverage on the work. Doesn't cost any more than the tool you bought.

 

[Black_cirrus]

After fighting my last one out I ran a tap through it. I had to go to harbor freight to find it though 1/2 npt. Might think about having one handy.

 

[satxwy]

Plumbers use a tool called a broken nipple extractor. This is a shaft with splines and an eccentric toothed collar that cams over when the tool is engaged and turned counter clockwise. I think the tool you were using looks more like a reamer, which is exactly how it worked. The nipple extractor puts a lot more leverage on the work. Doesn't cost any more than the tool you bought.

Thanks a bunch! Went out and bought a set of these this weekend. Got it punched in there and was able to get it out without much effort, although it took 3 separate times as the old nipple kept falling apart as it came out.

Now just to clean up the threads and retrieve any shards/pieces that fell into the opening.

To anyone reading this thread years later trying to fix this problem, you definitely want to just go ahead and get an appropriately sized nipple extractor.