Hopefully you will see some images below. It’s a broken actuator from a KS Lev CI with the remains of the thread stuck in the actuator shaft.
New actuators are possibly available, but obvs I need to get the remains of the old one out first. A bit tricky as the small inner shaft that you can see poking out doesn’t push in far enough to be able to get to the broken dregs stuck in the outer shaft.
Any ideas?
If the middle bit pushes in then it comes out some way. It either held captive by a grub screw or something or it has a shoulder or lip that stops it coming out the end you can see.
I am guessing the latter and you need to disassemble the other end of the post to drop it and any bushings out.
That will leave you with a hole right down the middle for a bolt extractor?
Is it the part labelled A31 59?
I might have an older post with that part you can have.
Yes, I'm fearing I'll have to figure out how to disassemble the cartridge end (A3145-100 below for reference...). Never done that with a KS dropper (I have had a few), just taken them apart as far as you can see in the diagram.
Anyone else with a cunning plan to avoid that?
Edit: On further thought what you can see above is P26SL sticking of the stub of A3163 screwed into A3154-100 pushing on P26012-100. I think I'll fiddle with P26SL to see if I can crack the remains still screwed in - it's an aluminium casting which is well known to be fragile (yes I was gentle but still...).
So you have a broken bit held in with loctite and corrosion, it's not going to come out easily. If it were mine to break and throw away I'd lock the actuator rod cap in a vice then hammer the shaft away from it in the hope it'll pull the broken bit out.
Ah so you think ps26l is pocking out and only captured by the remains of the actuator?
I would probably at this point do two things. With a punch or sacrificial screwdriver reach down and hit it with a hammer to loosen it. I might even try drilling a little divot in it to hit the screwdriver at an angle to see if you can just tap it out. But basically just try and break any bonds. I would also heat it up.
Then dribble some cyanoacetate down the edge of ps26l (but not flood it) and once its gone off unscrew ps26l. You might need to replace ps26l aswell but superglue with free itself with heat or leave it in a little acetone.
Update: the stub seems pretty stuck in there, there's quite a lot of stub and it doesn't seem keen on moving. Yet to try heat - could that soften up the Loctite that has been used if the KS docs are to be believed?
In the meantime (maybe for anyone who comes across this in future) I've found a couple of teardowns of similar, but inevitably not the same, KS cartridges here and here. I'll be using them if I decide I need to get the inner shaft out.
Yep Loctite is pretty much the best option anything. Not talking about getting itglowing hot or anything.
