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Throttle Body sensor help!

ChuckQue

NAXJA Forum User
Location
SoCal
Folks, I’ve run into a problem. In the process of swapping a larger BBK TB in, I was attempting to remove the sensors from the stock throttle body. I was able to remove two of them, but the third (TPS) is STUCK. I cannot get the damn torx screws to come out. I’ve snapped three bits including two impact bits. The local autozone has the TPS in stock but my worry is it won’t come with screws. So, my question is, what screws will work in this position? Anything I can easily source from autozone or Home Depot? Need to get this thing running today.

My second question is can you folks help me ID which sensors the other two are? From my understanding one is the MAP sensor and the other is the IAC? Is that correct? Which one is which?
 
The Map sensor has the vacumm fitting!
 
Some penetrating oil might help, but take care not to get any oil or solvent into the TPS sensor as that will ruin it in short order. Worst case, dremel the head of the screw off. Home Depot will likely have a matching screw in one of the pullout drawers of specialty screws. Use their thread gauge to confirm the thread (guessing metric).
 
Grind off the damaged heads. The threads are most like metric, whatever fits will work, they do not need to be Torx.
 
Well, thankfully the new sensor did come with new bolts as well!

What I did learn from reading old threads here and other forums is the steel bolts and aluminum housing have a tendency to fuse badly due to the difference in metals coupled with lots of time. One guy, who said he’s a boat mechanic, said an old trick is brown iodine. I might just try that on the old sensor and throttle body to see if it works for future reference. I know when I removed the other sensors they were stuck pretty well too and the screws had rust on the front portion where they met the aluminum housing.
 
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One trick that has helped me on occasion is rocking the screw back and forth. The technique is to break the bond without snapping off the screw, you have to do it with feeling. Steady torque in one direction is the less sucessful way of breaking that bond.
I used to muscle brain every screw or bolt, now I kind of do it with feeling. Kind of like foreplay. :) The extra time you spend easing that stubborn screw out is often saved many fold not having to deal with the aftermath of broken screws.
 
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