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I wonder if you could just rethread the water pump to 1/4"?
Why would one do that to the water pump? The water pump has nothing to do with the fan hub. The fasteners thread into the 4 recessed double nut plates after sandwiching the pulley/bearing assembly and respective gaskets etc...
M6 x 1 od is .236. # 12 x 32 is .216.
Instead of trying to use a 12-24 bolt to rethread, consider sanding or filing m6 bolts down to .216. Most or all of the existing threads will be sanded/filed off. Do you have any friends with a lathe?
Sometimes I get sucked down a rabbit hole a little too deep, so stop me if you found some #12x2.5" half thread (only the last half of the bolt is threaded) you could chop off... Home depot and the ilk I looked at first was all thread so not really useful.
an M6 bolt at .2362 has ~.022 deep threads, so after you lathe em off would be less than .216 (remember both sides, so .022 x 2), so you would either have too much traces of metric thread left or not enough meat left to get a good quality bolt when you are done..... but I thought well how hard would it be to get a M6 bolt blank, that would be a lot easier to cut than a 1/4 (also called #14) bolt blank.... turns out most of these places wont mess with you for less than $$$$ (like $200 for a minimum batch of 1000).
So my next thought would be order an M6 x stupidly long half threaded (or keep hunting for #12 x stupidly long) , hacksaw off the extra length and then thread what you need.
I hate buying directly from China on these cause some of these A-holes will send you ungraded or totally crap fasteners that wont hold... But with some careful shopping on Aliexpress I think you can find good quality graded M6 x stupidly long
For $3 I found a M6x50 (50mm = ~2"), but the seller doesn't specify what the B and L lengths are in the listing, so it would be a contact, wait for reply, contact again, etc... I've done it, but it takes forever with timezones and translation.
Course you also get to pay $4 shipping or else find $7 worth of cheep chinese plastic junk to add to your cart to get free shipping...
And this is not a purist perfect restore either, it is a regular (for metric that small) hex socket cap head , it wouldn't have the hex head you started with if you want purist restoration.
With some deeper hunting you probably could find a hex head maybe even a #12 hex head.
an M6 bolt at .2362 has ~.022 deep threads, so after you lathe em off would be less than .216 (remember both sides, so .022 x 2), so you would either have too much traces of metric thread left or not enough meat left to get a good quality bolt when you are done..... but I thought well how hard would it be to get a M6 bolt blank, that would be a lot easier to cut than a 1/4 (also called #14) bolt blank.... turns out most of these places wont mess with you for less than $$$$ (like $200 for a minimum batch of 1000).
Nindejin
You got it right on the M6 and I, in not thinking, forgot to double the depth of threads in my post. Thanks for setting me straight.
Interesting that they are for a "modern" firearm. Give the vast number of listings for that screw type (that don't mention the threads) and the age/type of the application, I would have doubts trusting the 12-32 aspect. They are not the hex head that is being sought after, but may be functionally equivalent if being shorter isn't an issue and the threads are indeed 32 TPI. And as for being shorter, it seems they (unconventionally) include the head in that 1" length: https://www.ebay.com/itm/166591592718
ManFordman2, that is just yet another listing of the same that was already discussed earlier in this thread and found not to be a great fit.
Bmoran4, Please take another look. I believe that I have two good reasons for posting my previous link. First, the price is much lower at 4.97 for two screws (much cheaper than the two ebay listings). And secondly, those screws in the link that I posted have about 19 threads whereas the number of threads in your previous post, the one with the scale showing the length, only has 14 threads. Also note that there is a note on the DiProducts webpage that states: "May require the screws to be shortened for proper fit" which may account for the shorter length of the screws as measured in your ebay link. And, as you previously stated, screw length doesn't include the head. Firstrider says he has some which is good for now, but someone else may need these,eventually or maybe.
I have ordered 8 of these at a total cost of $28 including shipping from DIP inc. This seems very reasonable. The #20 Torx head is not ideal, but it will work. Thanks
I have ordered 8 of these at a total cost of $28 including shipping from DIP inc. This seems very reasonable. The #20 Torx head is not ideal, but it will work. Thanks
I sure hope they work for you. The shipping was a lot cheaper too. The torque was 14 inch pounds which isn’t much. Maybe a touch of loctite. Please let us know how they work.
Last edited by ManFordman2; Jan 13, 2025 at 01:26 PM.
Reason: Duplicate post.
You make some points on pricing and the specifics on sizing. Even at a proper 1", they are still seem too short for proper thread and don't match the Ford fastener spec. Here is an actual Ford Fan Bolt roughly scaled to the same size as the stock picture and you can see that the length seems still to way too short for proper engagement into the nut plate.
For $28 I would have either A) tapped em out to 1/4 fine (most likely) or B) ordered 4 bags of 10 bolts from aliexpress (to get to the minimum $10 for free shipping) and then had 32 extra bolts to sell (for $12 after taxes), even if I had to go to 60 or 70mm long to get enough unthreaded.
One thing that surprised me is how much Hillman has control over the retail market. I knew Lowes carried Hillman, but now Home Depot, Ace, everywhere an average Joe can walk into seems they have Hillman as their stock. There are a lot of other mfg. out there, I would have thought National bolt (https://nationalbolt.com/) would be more readily available to the layman.
FWIW, I searched Hillmans catalog to find out if they had a #12 hex head that was only half threaded and couldn't find anything....
Industry standard changed at some point so that anything 1/4" and larger is now called a "Bolt" and anything smaller is now called a "Screw" even if it has a hex head and is a bolt by any other definition, walks, talks, looks, smells like a bolt to me.
"#12 Machine screw" I thought would get me there.... but I didn't spend tons of time hunting since I found those nice grade high carbon ones on ali that could be threaded easily.
You make some points on pricing and the specifics on sizing. Even at a proper 1", they are still too short for proper thread engagement. Here is an actual Ford Fan Bolt roughly scaled to the same size as the stock picture and you can see that the length seems still to way too short for proper engagement into the nut plate.
he
You have a point as well. However, the difference between the two screws should only be 1/16" in length because, as you said, the length does not include the head and I'm counting on that. We will know for sure when Jim gets them in hand.
If they do indeed fit and function, we would want to know the exact gaskets & supplier (and thickness for those inclined to like such specifications) used to ensure that others can have the same success.
It would be great to have a source that is click and order. *fingers crossed
Heck, maybe we could pester them to do a run of Ford spec hex head 1 1/16 type...
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