Cleaning out threaded holes

[Aussie Frontier]

I am in the process of getting my act together to do the diff centre swap in the truck.
I know the holes for the bolts holding the back cover on will be full on silicon sealant. Anyone got any ideas on how to get the old silicon out of the holes.I know the wire wheel on the bench grinder will clean up the bolts but what would I use to clean out the threads in the holes of the diff housing.
Any ideas short of running an end tap through the holes?

 

[Jason]

Thread cleaner?

 

[Krankin]

round wire brush/pipe cleaner and or tools like the above post and an air hose.

 

[Aussie Frontier]

would work but damm would be fiddly getting into the small holes.
They are only 8mm dia

 

[Krankin]

would work but damm would be fiddly getting into the small holes.

go down to the gun shop and get a few brass wire cleaning brushes.
they come in all calibur/sizes...
from about 5mm up to shotgun size.


otherwize a tap done carefully is probably the best.

 

[will]

cant you just crank the bolt back in & push it through? or doesn't it go all the way through?

 

[Aussie Frontier]

They are blind holes so no can do that

 

[Jason]

would work but damm would be fiddly getting into the small holes.
They are only 8mm dia

The shaft swivels in the handle like a de-burring tool, 8mm would be fine, I've used them plenty of times. Gets good results too.

 

[Aussie Frontier]

Well looks like I am gunna have to get me one of them there tools then

 

[Aussie Frontier]

Ok heres something strange
the bolts holding the diff cover are 5/16 thread not metric at all.
Go Figure
Me thinks the M226 diff is from the US not Europe.

 

[Krankin]

or some third world country that has old imperial tooling.

 

[Aussie Frontier]

Same thing isnt it lol

 

[Dave]

There Dana, you gotta expect that.

Dave,

 

[Aussie Frontier]

Must be one hell of a factory to produce this many diffs
bugger knows why they went with drum not disk seeing they would be on the same production line .
But on the good side it means parts should in theory be interchangeable so gear ratios the US create should fit our diffs

 

[Leprechaun]

The sub frame behind the sump uses 11mm bolts? I had to replace mine with 7/16 unf.