Repaired Rivet Nut Installer

In order to install the conduit clamps that will attach the rail lights to the soft top support tubes, I needed to use my old Rivet Nut installer, but it broke. This is how I repaired it.

This is a PowerFast 37005 Rivet Nut installation tool. It came as a kit with hardware to install 6-32, 8-32, 10-24 and 1/4-20 rivet nuts.

I've had this tool for many years. Over time, the aluminum nose piece of the tool started to collapse and then crack and it finally let go with a bang when I tried to use it this time. I don't think this tool is available any longer and I could find no spare parts.

Here's a listing for a used tool:
https://www.tzsupplies.com/nice-power-fast-no-37005-i6162091/
It looks like that one has a solid nose piece on it, interesting.

I ended up fashioning a 1" diameter steel rod that fits over the broken end of the original nose piece. This has the M10x1.0 thread for the supplied mandrels to screw into. As the nose piece was just over 3/4" diameter, I drilled the end of the steel to 3/4" then turned down the nose piece to slide inside. The part was made a bit over sized and was then trimmed down to fit, as I had no "before" measurements to go by.

All in all, this repaired tool works better than it did when new. Without the flexing of the soft metal in the nose piece, it's a lot easier to get a good crimp with the rivet nuts.

More to come, installing rivet nuts the rest of the conduit clamps...

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Intro/Outro:
Louisiana Fairytale by Austin Rogers
https://web.archive.org/web/20170402222425/http://drfiddle.com/show_tune.php?id=94