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Furgy
Dodge Dakota
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4/02/2004
20:24:28

Subject: Eight ball
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Ok. I have a genuine 8 ball, and would like to make a shifter for my dak. Any help would be greatly appreicated. Hole size , how to thread?? Thanks for your help.



slopehead
Dodge Dakota
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4/04/2004
19:15:20

RE: Eight ball
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as far as hole size goes, I would need to know the size of the thread on the shifter, then I can look on a chart in my ofice and tell you what size hole you need to drill to leave enough plastic behind to allow the tap to have enough material to cut the threads.
Clamp the ball in a drill press vise and find the highest part of the ball then mark it. use a center punch to put a dent right in the middle of the ball. this will keep the drill from "walking off center" then put the right size drill, which I will tell you when I know what size the thread on the shifter is, and touch the center of the ball at the mark, then using C clamps, clamp the vise to the drill press table. then set the depth gage to go a total of 1/2 to 3/4 of the way through the ball, then turn on the drill press at athe speed that is closest to around 1000 rpm. which is about right for plastic, and drill the hole to depth. making sure you don't go through the ball. when finished turn off the drill press. without removing either the ball or the C clamps remove the drill from the chuck. then place the right size tap into the drill press and BY HAND rotate the chuck while lightly feeding into the hole. after the tap has gone in a3 or more turns into the hole, remove the tap from the chuck, but be carefull the feed handle does not hit you in the face as the return spring will try to do this. then use either a tap wrench, highly recommeded, or any wrnch that you can find, not recommended, and turn the tap the rest of the way to depth. The reason I said to use the drill chuck to start the tap is to get the tap to start straight in the hole rather then at an angle, and at an angle causes all sorts of trouble.
40 plus years in the machining bussiness and 20 plus as a shop owner.
best of luck, slopehead.



FURGY
Dodge Dakota
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4/04/2004
19:47:22

RE: Eight ball
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Thanks I think I can take it from here. I was just concerned about the plastic not being strong enough to tighten down , plus I would like the 8 to be straight up.



Kowalski
Dodge Dakota
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4/05/2004
15:43:07

RE: Eight ball
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If you have any problems tapping the threads you can go a little oversize and fasten it with a bit of bondo in the hole. I did that with a nine ball for a Ford 9N that's kept outside where I work and its still on tight after three winters.



Bowtie-ZL1
Dodge Dakota
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4/05/2004
18:49:37

RE: Eight ball
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You can use varying thicknesses of washers to index the "8", or if there is no shoulder, you can use varying thicknesses of spacers on top of the lever to index the "8"



slopehead
Dodge Dakota
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4/05/2004
21:30:25

RE: Eight ball
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hey guys all really good additions. although there are different thread inserts that work better and are stronger then heli coils if the threads ever get messed up.


just post for me if you have any machining proplems, if you do, don't try to fix it without consulting with me first. You would not believe the amount of messed up parts we get in with broken taps drills and bolts broken off inside them , and the guy that messed it up has made it much worse by trying to get it out himself instead of just bringing it to us first. Just 2 weeks ago a guy busted off a bolt in a part that we originally made, then tried to hand drill it out. the drill walked off the bolt and made the hole oversize and off center, due to an intersecting bolt hole just 5/16 inch into the busted bolt hole, the part was trashed. If he would have sent it too us before trying to fix it I would have not charged him as the cost of paperwork was almost as much as we would have got for the 10 minutes it would have taken my guy to do it. Instead I nicked him for 5 hrs. at 76 bucks an hour to make a new part. What could he do? his machine was down and he was in a jam, and I was the only solution as we had to backwards engineer the part the first time as he never did have a print.



Furgy
Dodge Dakota
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4/05/2004
22:40:51

RE: Eight ball
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Thanks for all the info everyone.I will do the work this weakend and let you know how it turned out.



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