Today I learned how to rethread a stripped nut. It was probably a bad first project: Cramped space on the underside of a motorcycle frame, wedged in between the suspension and a rail I decided to work around.
A few YouTube tutorials taught me the gist, and the tools were easy enough to figure out. It was sort of painstaking because the tool I had wasn’t super ergonomic and I needed to keep resetting with each 3/4 turn.
Part of the tool broke off in my hand when I judged that I still had maybe three or four threads to go, so I painstakingly backed the tap back out with a pair of pliers, reassembled the rack pieces, and crossed my fingers.
Turned out I had rethreaded plenty far enough, and everything tightened down just fine. I tossed the broken tool in a junk bin with a merry little “GFY, asshole!” and got down to mounting my saddlebags.
Each of my bikes helps me figure out its name on a long ride with all the good songs on shuffle. This one’s named “Jenny.”