Remove soft top rear deck lever on 1956 Tbird?

zuburg

zuburg

Senior Member
In trying to close the rear deck dog leg lever on the soft top, I believe I broke the pin that holds the dog leg lever to the stud (I found a piece of it and now the clamp just spins around without turning the fastener with the prongs. I was successful in removing the fastener and now just have the stud attached to the lever. I’ve tried hammering a small nail with the point cut off in the pin hole to try to remove whatever part of the pin remains. So far, no luck. Any ideas how to separate these two parts?
 
Sorry, I wasn’t sure how I would get the photos, but I went back to do the best I could.

The first photo shows the stud that is attached to the lever with the broken pin. The chrome piece with the prongs set above and right of the stud was screwed on to the threads of the stud (there is a set screw that secures it).

The second photo shows the lever attached to the other end of the stud and the hole for the rolled pin that holds it on the shaft.

I can’t get the lever off the stud, and thus cannot get the stud out to replace it.
 

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It appears that the pin, chrome piece simply needs to be placed onto the stud and held on by the set screw
I don’t see anything broken
 
The chrome part was attached to the stud with the set screw. It was hard to get it off as there was some rust on the threads. I was able to break it loose with some WD40. The problem is when it was attached, it didn’t turn when you turned the lever. It’s kind of like the lever won’t come off, but it just spins around the stud instead of turning the stud. I’m confused because the part diagrams I saw show the lever goes over a smooth stud and the rolled pin goes through the lever handle and through the hole on the stud. I don’t understand how the handle can turn but not turn the stud when it still seems attached to the stud. Since that doesn’t make any sense, I will work harder on separating the lever from the stud. I’ll use a little more brute force.
 
Make sure the lever is in the right position and then drill the hole out slightly bigger to accept a larger roll pin, just a thought.
 
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