You know how you advocate using a punch to flatten the safety part of the safety torx.
Well, for the sake of argument, let's say this doesn't go very successfully, Would it be feasible to remove them by grabbing them from ouside the head and brute forcing it off. You seem to suggest it's possible.
As far as reinstallation, there isn't anything funny about those screws right, should they need to be replaced due to removal gone awry?
thanks...ed

 

Ed,

A good pair of small pliers (Knipex) will turn and remove the screws just as easily as flattening the rejection nib in the Torx recess. I've done that, too. The availability of drivers for tamper-resistant Torx screws is very common these days. When I wrote the article, I had difficulty finding them in the right size. Now I can get them from a few different sources and manufacturers. Apex makes a driver bit that will fit almost anything made, including Robertson (square recess) and the older clutch-tip recesses in several sizes. Torx and tamper resistants and run-of-the-mill for them.

But the plier trick works well once the regulator is off the engine. The screws are very small, and I believe they are stainless. The material isn't nearly as important as the tensile strength, so a good steel screw would be just fine.

If my memory serves me, they were either 3-48 or M2 x 0.4. You should be able to find replacements in Allen cap screws at any good supplier. They are pretty tiny screws, but not the smallest I've ever dealt with. I used to observe #00-120 screws being hard threaded in a flat-die roller at about 400/minute. (They were used internally for pacemakers.)

We got the raw material from a mill in Nagoya, Japan. They proudly proclaimed it the "World's smallest forging wire". Just to **** them off, we drilled and tapped a hole in the end of it and sent it back to them. Poseurs...

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Later,
Vader
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"I'm'a do Things My Way - It's My way or the Highway."
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[This message has been edited by Vader (edited March 22, 2001).]

 

lol....btw, this information is apparently gonna come in handy...i lost one when i was putting them back in...and 5 screws don't hold pressure
...ed