Jammed door lock set screw

[WarbirdPhotog]

Originally Posted by Kube

This is not an easy task whatsoever. That thing Drake sells is a lot beefier than the Ford OEM piece.
Removing a broken drill bit is never fun. This one? Even less fun than most. I'm not a naysayer but would give you success rate at less than 1%.
A drill bit is fairly hard, even a cheap one. The fact that you can't center a diamond bit on the end of the broken one compounds the issue.

And that's where I wonder if the Dremel can possibly (and slowly) grind it out. I don't care if I damage/destroy the lock on there now, it's not only broken/jammed but it also appears to be a 41-49 style lock and not correct anyway. So the important parts are to get the set screw dremeled out, re-tap with a larger size, and use a screw with a slotted flat head (and maybe some anti-size on the threads for future removal)

[19Fordy]

Warbird: Before you try other ideas, try using these first. Even if you end up using a couple of sets, it's worth it.

https://www.temu.com/subject/n9/goog...ctx=f-78ce0f3a

[19Fordy]

https://www.temu.com/subject/n9/goog...ctx=f-78ce0f3a

Sorry for the repeat.

[19Fordy]

More here:
https://www.bing.com/search?q=diamon...ANAB01&PC=HCTS

[WarbirdPhotog]

Originally Posted by 19Fordy

Warbird: Before you try other ideas, try using these first. Even if you end up using a couple of sets, it's worth it.

I plan to grab these this evening and give them a try on Thursday when I can next work on the vehicle.
https://www.harborfreight.com/diamon...ece-69653.html

[tom1948]

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I just had something similar, there was a broken stud on a tail light housing, someone had tried to drill it out and broke the bit in the hole. I drilled down until I could see the end of the bit and worked it with 2 needle picks until it was loose in the hole, then, I could get it out. time and patience my friend. tom

[rich b]

If you end needing to replace the treaded tube; get a 10-32 rod coupler. Works great to replace a messed up original. Then use a regular set screw (with a little never-seize) instead of the slotted original style. Not stock; but....

[WarbirdPhotog]

Originally Posted by rich b

If you end needing to replace the treaded tube; get a 10-32 rod coupler. Works great to replace a messed up original. Then use a regular set screw (with a little never-seize) instead of the slotted original style. Not stock; but....

Thanks for the info! I've already been starting to think about what I might do if the dremeling does not work.

[WarbirdPhotog]

UPDATE: I started to dremel the hole with a diamond-tipped bit... Good news is that it is indeed grinding it out. Bad news is that it's going very slow and already chewed up three bits. So it's going to be a game of patience and how many trips I want to make to Harbor Freight to get more dremel bits. But it seems to be working.

[ndnchf]

Maybe look for a set of carbide grinding tips. They are super hard and sharp and eat through steel like it is warm cheese. I have a set for my Dremel, they are very handy.

[WarbirdPhotog]

Originally Posted by ndnchf

Maybe look for a set of carbide grinding tips. They are super hard and sharp and eat through steel like it is warm cheese. I have a set for my Dremel, they are very handy.

Just went and looked those up. I like the idea, but they don't seem to be small enough to go into the hole. All the ones on Amazon seem large.

[ndnchf]

Originally Posted by WarbirdPhotog

Just went and looked those up. I like the idea, but they don't seem to be small enough to go into the hole. All the ones on Amazon seem large.

Here are some mini sizes. They go down to 1/16".

https://www.championcuttingtool.com/...-Carbide-Burs/

Try search for mini or micro carbide burr.

[Bob C]

I would try a 1/8 inch 4 flute center cutting carbide end mill in the dremel.

[1948F-1Pickup]

Originally Posted by Bob C

I would try a 1/8 inch 4 flute center cutting carbide end mill in the dremel.

"Slow" on a Dremel is pretty darn fast for that kind of cutting tool.....

[fortyfords]

I spent about five and a half hours drilling out one of those very hard set screws. I wore out some drill bits but I hit one drill bit that was tough and it drilled through enough that an easy out backed out the remaining piece of set screw. It took a lot of patience.

[1948F-1Pickup]

An Artu slotted (carbide) drill bit would probably be able to do the job…..

[Kube]

The problem with this method is removing the broken drill bit without damaging the threads so bad as to make them useless.
Remember the 'assembly" is made of thin metal. A little bit "off" one way or the other and the threads are toast.

While I wish warbird the best of fortune, from experience, I can warn of poor odds of success.

[Karl Wescott]

Just a thought here... If Warbird can find a LH twist drill bit for drilling out the remainder of the set screw he might get lucky and have the screw unstick and get pulled out by the bit.

[woodiewagon46]

Unless you get the broken drill bit out first, then there isn't much that can do. Using an end mill would be useless as the broken drill bit is going to snap the flutes of the end mill immediately. The location of the part is the biggest issues as it's almost impossible to get at. I was lucky when I needed to work on the doors on my 1946 Ford Station Wagon as the lock screws came out fairly easy. When I replaced them I used stainless steel set screws and gob's of anti-seize. You might need to do some serious surgery to get the lock assembly out.

[WarbirdPhotog]

Originally Posted by Kube

The problem with this method is removing the broken drill bit without damaging the threads so bad as to make them useless.
Remember the 'assembly" is made of thin metal. A little bit "off" one way or the other and the threads are toast.

While I wish warbird the best of fortune, from experience, I can warn of poor odds of success.

It's really a game of attrition now. I'm trying to Dremel out the super hard whatever-it-is that is jammed inside the set screw. At this point, I've used up about 10 dremel bits (diamond head) and I'm only about 25% of the way there. So this will take a lot of time and dremel bits. At this point, there's no way I'm going to recover the original threads. That being said, there still seems to be enough 'meat' on the tube that I could possibly tap new threads carefully and, even though it won't be OEM, use a slotted screw. But, I just gotta dremel this thing out, and it's sure not easy.