Removing Roll Pins

barleypop5 · 2007-12-31T00:30:45+00:00

I just had to replace the spring on a trailer jack. This is thespring that snaps the lock lever into the hole on the frame to lockthe jack in place, either down for jacking, or up for hauling. Ithought this would be simple. I had an old drum brake spring that wasalmost the same size, so all I had to do was remove the roll pin,replace the spring and put the roll pin back. WRONG..... This turned out to be a nightmare of a job.The roll pin would not come out. I'm sure it was rusty, so I soakedit with PB Blaster. I hammered on it with a punch, and it got a flatend, meaning it would not pass thru the hole. But I figured I'dhammer it loose and then remove it from the other side. Instead, itbroke off. I went to the other side and broke that side too. I tookmy grinder and flattened the end of the pin to remove the spring andthe whole thing from the jack. I placed the part in my vice andhammered for a half hour, and it would not budge. Now this is just a1/8" roll pin, nothing large, so common sense says it should have comeout by hammering.I placed the part in my drill press and decided to drill it out. Iapplied PB Blaster as a cutting oil and began drilling. The bitpenetrated less than 1/32 of an inch before the drill bit just turnedred and shattered. What ever metal those roll pins are made of, isextremely hard. I got another bit, and a minute later the tip of thebit was flat, and I had only gone in another 1/32 of an inch. Teomore bits and I was a little more than halfway thru the 1/2" thickpiece of steel. I found a slightly larger bit, and one that was a topquality bit. That one threw sparks, but kept biting in, very slowly.90% of the way thru the 1/2" shaft, that bit broke. I did not haveany more bits that would fit. I finally took the broken piece of thebit and applied as much pressure on the drill press handle as I could.About the time the bit was glowing red, it broke thru. Total timespent drilling - almost 3 hours. Total time on entire job, 4...

Dec 31, 2007 21 Replies

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dpb 18 years ago

Doh... :(

The point is the OP replaced an original rolled pin w/ a cotter key. There's a reason there was a pin as opposed to a cotter initially. The likelihood is that it was for the shear strength w/ a somewhat lesser chance it was to minimize play.

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maxodyne 18 years ago

You're right. I went back & looked at the OP story and there it was, all about the trailer jack. Not too sure what that is, but I was visualizing a spring loaded pawl, pivoting upon and secured by a hardened roll pin. I could have my visualization wrong, though. Then I got so caught up in the roll pin removal adventure that I lost track of what the darn roll pin was was supposed to be doing in the first place :-P

Agreed, if a hardened roll pin is securing something to something else, best to evaluate the situation and ask oneself if a mild steel Cotter pin would suffice or would fail. Case in point for failure would be the common application of a roll pin to secure an automotive engine oil pump's externally splined shaft to its mating internally splined drive gear. Hardened steel shaft, hardened steel gear... even though a Cotter pin might fit clearance-wise, it would eventually fail, and with catastrophic results.

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