More Harmon Advance troubles

[SilverCityzen]

Bought a brand new Harmon Advance over the summer, and so far regret it. A seemingly endless list of problems, and my dealer is worthless.

Anyway, the current problem is that one of the bolts, or studs that hold the glass in the door came from the factory totally stripped, so is not holding at one end so leaks. The glass also was broken, as it turns out also from day one.

Being an honest sort, I replaced the glass at my cost, because at the time I did not know if I had broken it or not. Inspection during the change strongly indicated the glass was broken from the factory, and the stud stripped, but now of course they say I stripped the stud replacing the glass. I KNOW I did not, but I've wasted enough time on these guys.

So... these glass holder studs appear to just be pressed in from the outside of the door. Do I stand any chance of being able to pop the stripped one out and put a bolt in? At this point I just want to get the leaks stopped... I can live with a bolt head on the outside of the door.

Anybody know?

Many thanks in advance (so to speak ).

 

[Souzafone]

I can't answer your question directly, but maybe offer a different angle. Is it possible to clean the threads with a chaser, or tap it to a different size (metric?) if it's too difficult or $$ to replace?

 

[SilverCityzen]

Thanks... that is the other direction under consideration... the stud is stripped smooth, so re-threading it might work. I'm not sure about enough room to get a die on there with it in the door, though... have to check that.

 

[galen]

Silver, if you can get a tap on it, you wouldn't need to thread it all the way down the stud. Just get enough threads to hold the nut, then under the nut use washers. I would use stainless steel nut and washers.

 

[SilverCityzen]

Thanks for the tips... here is an update:

The threading approach had the look of a lot of expense and trouble, since I don't have a die set already. So, I tried the 'pop the stud out' approach.

And the answer is, Yes, they come out without a whole lot of trouble at all. So, stripped stud out, new bolt in, glass now is held tightly in place. We'll see how it goes, hopefully I'm about at the end of these problems with this thing.

I do have to say, so far at least, I do not consider the $$$ I spent on this thing to be well spent. Caveat Emptor.