Starter pole shoe driver bit

[mn42ford]

Hi,
I was wondering if anyone has any idea where I could find a screw driver bit for removing the pole shoes on a starter and gen. I will have to be used with a impact of some sort. Thanks

[Derek Eddlestone]

What you need is a 'Drag Link Socket' which is like a large screwdriver blade that is available in 3/8", 1/2" or 3/4" drive and with various sizes of blade. The only place I've seen them is on the Snap On truck but they aren't very expensive.I'm sure that the 'pole' screws could be removed with a Drag Link Socket and a Breaker Bar instead of an Impact Wrench.
The original idea was that they could be used to adjust the drag link in the steering mechanism and they do make that job easy.

Derek.

[Ian Jamieson]

You can also go to your tool store and purchase an impact driver. These usually come with 2 straight bits and 2 philips bits. You simply put into the screw head, hold tension against the screw and hit the driver with a large hammer.

Pole shoe screws are notorious for being very tight.

These drivers work both ways.

Ian

[Thomas Romine]

I took mine to the local starter repair shop. They use a special tool to remove and replace the pole screws because of the torque they require.

[Cuz]

Last year there was a long post on this exact tool issue and several photos and sources were listed. Try using the search function for the G and you'll find this several times discussed.

[Wolfman]

Being an old farm boy, I have had a lot of creative moments in my life. Removing pole shoe screws being one.
I made a cradle from angle iron that the housing would lay in to keep it from rolling.
Found a large flat blade screw driver. Cut the end off and put it in my drill press.
Put the housing in the cradle on the drill press bed.
Used the drill press to hold the screwdriver blade in the screw slot and used a cresent wrench on the flat off the blade to turn it.
Worked great!!

[Mike Wright]

I do very simular to Mike, however, AI use a press instead of a drill press to place pressure on the pole screws, gives more pressure on those really stubborn ones

[mn42ford]

Thanks guys for the different ideas. I tried the search with no luck, but will try the other ideas. Thanks again

[bazza46]

Whatever type of driver you get, make sure you get, or make, some kind of device like the ones described above to apply lots of pressure to the driver.

Otherwise, you run the risk of having the driver slip out of the slot under torque, buggering up the slot. Then you'd have a mongrel of a time trying to remove the screw.

[Jerry Hudgens]

I have completely rebuilt/restored four Jeep generators and that included removing the field coils and pole faces, etc. The way I did it was: I put the generator on a homemade kind of stand to keep it from turning, etc. . I then wet cloths and put them inside against the field coils. I then used an acetylene torch to heat the area around the screw that holds the field coil pole in place. I then used an impact driver with the large bit and hammered down on the screw with the impact driver and the screws all came out relatively easy. I did try one without heating the area around the screw and I could not budge it even with the impact driver. In my case, all of the four generators were rusted up quite a bit so if your generator is not really rusty, I am sure your screws will come out easier than mine did.

The wet cloths kept the heat off the field coils and I had no problems with them or any sign of damage from heating the screws for the pole pieces.

When you re-install the field coils, you must be careful that you do not pinch the wire that connects the two coils in series since it has very little room in the case and you must make sure that if you re-wrap your field coils (like I did), that your wrap is tight and does not distort the shape of the coil. Otherwise, you will have a hard time getting the re-wrapped coils back in the genrator with no shorts or rubbing on the armature and with the field pole faces correctly seated. I had a lot of trouble with one of the generators, due to my re-wrapping changed the shape of the coils.


Jerry HUdgens
42 GPW

[David H. Morganthall]

They make a hand driven impact driver that matches the size and it works very well compared to air and brute force, both of which failed me. David