I think you are right Mike. I had the bolt I needed in my junk box. One of the previous mechanics had inserted the pins by hammering on them directly. Needless to say, the threads were buggered up. I had to run a tap into the pin to clean it up. I reinsert the pin by gently hammering on the bolt head, not the pin itself. It is important to fully seat the bolt into the pin before doing anything.

Well guys, the 6x50 bolt worked very well in concert with a nut, washer, and a 1/4" drive - 10mm socket. Sucked the first two pins right out with little problem. Now I've gotten to the left bank where things seem to be a bit more corroded so I'm letting things soak in Liquid Wrench overnight.

BTW, I made another post with this question but might as well ask it here - what is the best method for removing the larger pin that goes with the tensioner guide rail? From the looks of it, I believe it has either an Allen or Torx head, not threads. Is this true?

jlc

Curious as to what method you used to "suck" it out with?

The tensioner rail pivot pin is under a cap. Remove the cap off the block using an allen wrench, then there is a pin which will slide out easily if you could only get a grip on it. As I recall, I used a straight blade screwdriver and sorta wedged it inside the pin and slid it out. Its hard to get a grip on the pin.

Ahha! So there is an Allen fitting there that I need to deal with first. Thanks.

Dave - what I meant by sucking it out is that the 10mm socket leaves enough room for the pin to be extracted into the socket yet gives a very stable base against the head casting to push against. Basically I take a 6x50 fully threaded bolt, thread a nut all the way onto it with a washer and the socket next. Then I thread this combo into the pin until seated and then start tightening down on the nut. As the nut moves down it pushes socket against the head and pulls the pin out. The only problem has been that the pins are corroded in place so I'm striping the threads on the bolt a bit hence the overnight soak in Liquid Wrench.

I should get back to it this afternoon.
jlc