It was supposed to be a simple job, just a factory trailer hitch installation on a Honda Odyssey. The only problem was it wasn’t a brand new Odyssey, it was a used one from 2014. The hitch attaches with six bolts in pre-threaded holes in the rear of the van, but because this was a 3 year old van, the holes were just rust and I couldn’t get the bolts to start in them.

Rusted threads shouldn’t be a problem, just run a tap in there, or even better, a thread chaser. I borrowed another tech’s thread chaser set and found the right size, but I couldn’t get it to start in the holes either. The next thing to try is a tap, so I go looking for the right size. I check my tap set as well as a few other sets different technicians had in the shop, but nobody had a 12×1.25 tap, only 12×1.5 and 12×1.75. My only choice was to wait for the Matco truck to come by later that afternoon and hope he had one with him. He did, and I bought it on the spot and was able to get back to work on the trailer hitch installation after standing around for two or three hours.

New blog posts every Monday and Thursday, plus pictures throughout the week on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!

Mechanical Malarkey stickers available for $5 anywhere in the US!

-Dan