Stuck Clutch Cover Dowel

[1948man]

I'm replacing my clutch cover with a spare one I polished up. The polished cover has one of the dowels stuck in it and the corresponding hole on the engine side also has a dowel stuck there. I'm trying to remove the one from the clutch cover to avoid buggering up on the engine side. At least I can use the original cover if I somehow screw up the polished one. I've tried penetrant and tapping with a hard plastic mallet to no avail. I even tried to grab the dowel with channel locks with a little padding between the jaws. I have a spare dowel so I then tried to grab the bare dowel with the channel locks. No luck. I also tried tapping straight down on the dowel to shock it. The cover is now laying "dowel-side" up with PB Blaster soaking down into the hole (hopefully). Anybody know any tricks for this?

[78550GS]

I have used a dent puller on a pair of needle nosed vice grips.

I also have another pair of needle nose vice grips that have a plate welded to one side at 90* to allow "tapping" and do the same thing as the dent puller.

*I don't recommend destroying GOOD tools to make one time use tools.*

[1948man]

Thanks for the ideas. I will see what I have laying around to improvise with after a while soaking.

[tkent02]

Have you tried heat? Aluminum expands more than steel, the aluminum hole should get bigger than the steel dowel pin.

[gustovh]

I second the use of heat, a small propane torch for the heat applied to the cover surrounding the pin and your grips on the pin with a twisting pressure and you will know when it let's go, then just pull it out.

V

[Agemax]

vice grips. heat, and pull it out while twisting at same time

[1948man]

Thanks for the help. I did try heat originally but only with a heat gun. I'm not sure that counts but it's all I have right now. I googled this situation on the web and it seems they can be pretty stubborn sometimes.

[1948man]

Thanks, got it. Seems even the Harbor Freight heat gun is enough to make a difference. I was just more persistent this time. It started to twist pretty soon but it was surprising how much longer it took to get it to pullout. Eventually I locked on it with some needle nose vice grips so the needle ends extended past the lip of the cover so I could hammer on (abuse) them. That finally worked but it was surprising how it tightened up fairly quickly if i didn't keep heating the aluminum. Anyway, deed is done thanks to GSR help.