Sunday, May 17, 2009

Broken fuel rod lever

It is rare that the metal fuel rod levers spin or come off the fuel rod. It is much more likely to happen to a plastic one.

I was so surprised when my brand new fuel rod lever came off the rod when I turned it. I wrote my mentor Tom G. about how to handle it. I suggested JB Weld.

Tom said:

Hi Jeremy. I've seen that happen with the new plastic fuel rods, but not (until now) with the all metal ones). I don't think JB is going to do the trick for this -- but I guess it is worth a try. If you do, you might want to slight rough up both surfaces to be joined with a dremel, to promote adhesion.

Another method, and a surer one I think would be drilling straight through the handle and rod to the other side, then tapping the hole, and screwing a small diameter machine screw right through. You might use an aluminum machine screw, and then cut off and peen the ends, and polish. Will probably look good, but quite a bit of work to salvage a not too expensive part.


At this point, I believe a replacement part is what is called for. I emailed the dealer, Gene M. of Scooters O (he's a really good guy), and he asked me to try JB Weld first. If not, he'd exchange it. He is also looking at his batch of fuel rods to ensure the rest are okay.

Note: Just graze it if you use a Dremel as I did loose the tight tight fit it had.

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