Spring for gas tank trap door?

[berniebee]

The spring has rusted away on this SP1000 trap door. Any hints on where to get one and HOW to replace it? Please don't tell me I have to drill out the welds on the cover and remove the entire hinge.

[Mayor_of_BBQ]

sure doesnt look like enough space down in that recess to push the pin out of the hinge. Yikes.

[jwinwi]

Isn't there a pin on which the hinge hinges? Punch it out from one end...

[Tom]

Try lube and tapping on the pin if not cut the pin with a Dremel.  I don't think getting it out with that much corrosion would allow the pin to come out easily.  Find pin and spring at a hardware store like ACE.

[Kiwi_Roy]

Try winding a new spring out of a bicycle spoke, they are kind of stainless as well. Just wrap it around a drill bit shank of the appropriate size.

[berniebee]

Isn't there a pin on which the hinge hinges? Punch it out from one end...

The pin could be pushed out maybe 1/4" before it would hit the side of the trap door. In any case, my pin punch would have to come in at an angle- again because of the side of the trap door. I tried- because of the angle the pin punch gets locked up before it can push the pin 1/16" of an inch.

[berniebee]

Try lube and tapping on the pin if not cut the pin with a Dremel.  I don't think getting it out with that much corrosion would allow the pin to come out easily.  Find pin and spring at a hardware store like ACE.

Because of the side of the trap door, I can't get the pin punch in line with the pin. And (again) because of the side of the trap door, my dremel cutting disk would slice the side of the trap door and/or the top of the trap door before it could cut through the pin. Dang!

My guess is that the whole hinge/spring assembly was put together before the hinge was spot welded to the trap door.

[Tom]

Sounds like bending or cutting something.   

[Tom]

What if you cut the spring and pin.  Go with 2 pins and joined in the middle of the replacement spring?

[nc43bsa]

I can't tell from your photo, but from my memory isn't the spot-welded piece folded over the pin on both ends?

If it is, can you use a very thin flat screwdriver to work the ends of the piece open far enough to get the pin, spring, and other piece out?

Then you can replace the spring and pin, put them back in place, and fold the ends closed again.

<edit> If all that is possible, I'd replace the pin and the spring with stainless steel.

[Moparnut72]

Is the spring rusted through? Would it be possible to rescue the existing one with a rust rmover? Permatex make a product that does this. I can't remember the name of it but we used a lot of it in the aircraft shop.
kk

[Don G]

Learn to live without the spring?  DonG

[rtbickel]

Drill through the side of the trap door on both sides so the pin can be punched out, JB Weld the holes, sand and touch up the paint?

[berniebee]

Thanks for all the responses. What i did was use a dremel to cut through the pin. The new cutting wheel was too large, but I wore it down to about 1/3 size on some scrap and then I was able to cut the pin with only minimal grooving on the adjacent sheet metal.