TD3 Lug Bolt Wear

[nekdut]

So this stems from my issue in this thread:

What appears to be happening, is the wear on shape of the end to hold it in place from spinning and loosening the nut on the other side:

This appears to be happening on more than one set of my bindings.  Are any of you seeing this?  The material for the shaft itself appears to be soft.

Just to confirm, the replacement part is this, correct?

https://www.bomberonline.com/TD3-Lug-Shaft_p_57.html

When zoomed out, the part looks correct, however when selecting the part, the photo seems off.

 

 

Edited March 31, 2023 by nekdut

[Wolf]

That's the old style lug shaft.  The flats on the steel shaft are supposed to be held from spinning by flats on the aluminum lug, but the shaft ends up mashing its way right through the aluminum.  Then you're stuck because the shaft spins and you can't remove the screw on the other side.  The replacement part is the newer style with a hex socket and no flats.  Now you can get an Allen wrench in there to hold the shaft in order to loosen the screw.

The newer version of the aluminum lugs now have replaced the two flats with a simple round counterbore, so you should probably get new lugs a well.  

And, getting your current lug shaft out can be a problem.  I've tried grinding a slot in to try to hold it with a screwdriver, but ultimately had to drill out the screw.  And, the bails can get stuck in the lugs as well.  I had a bail twist off while trying to unscrew a lug from it.  So, worst case you'll need a new bail too.

A good periodic maintenance is to loosen and retighten all of the threaded connections on the TD3s so that the threads don't freeze up.

[bigwavedave]

There's a whole thread worth reading here.

It's not just TD3's. Racers break F2's often enough to routinely replace them every year or two.  I have several pairs of td3sw's and went through them all. Any with a frozen lug were dealt with. A few of my sets were used and I think Cory's observation that the bails get stepped on and weakened is very likely. Any of mine that failed were 2nd hand and I can easily see someone being tempted to use that upright bail to clear snow from the boot sole.

 

[Wolf]

Also, the easiest, cheapest fix is to replace the lug shaft with a machine screw/bolt.  I showed that part way down in this thread:

If you use a bolt, you can reuse the existing lugs and you don't have to worry about removing the bail from the lugs.

[nekdut]

Oh!  Okay, so to confirm, this is the new and updated correct part:

https://www.bomberonline.com/TD3-Lug-Shaft_p_57.html

I should replace all of my shafts with this as they're all exhibiting some level of wear (and the one that failed this week of course).

Thank you all!  I am glad there is a clear and easy resolution to this.

[kay]

I know this is a bit old, just in case anyone facing the same issue and don’t have tools to mod the shaft. I successfully kept the shaft in place by freezing it in water and turned and removed the screws.

[Corey]

6 hours ago, kay said:

I know this is a bit old, just in case anyone facing the same issue and don’t have tools to mod the shaft. I successfully kept the shaft in place by freezing it in water and turned and removed the screws.

Wow, clever idea! 

I jammed a little flat-head screwdriver in the gap around the flats on the old design, that was just enough to break it free. Freezing is very smart! 

The new design lug shafts have hex fittings on both ends.