Unfortunately, a recent software update on my phone has turned the camera to crap so most of the pictures turned out to be useless. I have pieced together the few that might help, along with a few I have downloaded to hopefully provide a little more input on the process.
When you are disassembling the mechanism make sure get a good understanding on how it all works and fits together. My crappy pictures helped enough for reminders on where things went. I put all the parts in a ziplock as they came off and compared them with this exploded image so I could be sure what's what for reassembly later on.
This image shows what the bolt shaft looks like (circled) after the original bolt was melted off (over the stove).
I don't have a torch but this worked pretty well. I just made sure kitchen was well-ventilated because I don't know what was getting released into the air when I was heating it up. It didn't seem like much, but I didn't want to screw around with unknown vapors.
I cleaned up the shaft and got it down to bare metal using 3-in-1 lubricant/cleaner, scrubbing with Dawn and the using a file.
I measured off 5/8" from the end of that shaft and then marked heavily to see how far down into the new bolt I would need to cut/file for it to sit properly when inserted. (the area in the circle)
To cut the center opening for the shaft to sit in the bolt, I first marked a center line around the bolt, marking off the 5/8" depth to cut from back to front.
I locked some vice grips (a must, this got hot) on the new aluminum bolt, then used a dremel cutting wheel following markings. I worked back and forth around the bolt making a deeper and deeper groove. This is where a band saw would have saved a lot of time. Eventually, the cutting got me to this point:
The slot I cut in the bolt was not wide enough, so I had to do that by hand. I locked the vice grips back on the bolt, turned on a show and spent 30+ min working the slot with small files (I got at Lowe's for $5) until it was wide enough to receive the shaft to 5/8" depth.
At that point, I cleaned the shaft again, reinserted it into the Bargman housing so it protruded from the front of the housing (shown by the red arrow in the picture above). I did not yet put the springs back on, I didn't want the bolt to get pulled into the housing while the epoxy was still wet and curing.
I carefully measured and marked off a front-to-back center line on the bolt and the shaft to help as a guide for making sure it was centered. I lightly buttered up the bolt with JB weld epoxy and pushed the two together until the edge of the bolt slot lined up with the 5/8" mark I made across the shaft. It was a fairly snug fit so it limited shifting. I filled around the assembly shaft with epoxy pushing it in the bolt slot from the sides to lock it in. I used a thin flat piece of metal to scrape the excess epoxy off the outside of the bolt. Some was still on there, it didn't worry about it being too clean b/c I didn't want to shift the bolt and I knew I could file off the excess later.
I then clamped the back end of the shaft down to the housing to keep the newly combined (but not yet properly seated) assembly level in the housing. At this point, I looked at the set up from all angles to make sure it looked square and that all the markings lined up. Once I was confident everything was centered, I set it aside to cure for a day. Once cured, I filed off the excess epoxy. At this point, the new bolt assembly looked pretty much the same as Alain's shown in post #1.
There must be a way to put the bolt assembly back together outside of the housing and then reinsert it after the epoxy has set as Alain showed in post #1. Clearly, he did it, and they used to sell the old bolt assembly as complete units in the Bargman repair kits. I couldn't figure it out and was fearful of
painting myself into a corner which is why I epoxied the new bolt on with the shaft in the assembly.
It was also a bit of a battle to fully slide the bolt assembly all the way into the housing once the springs where back on but it gets there. Needle-nose pliers and a small flat head screwdriver will be needed to take things apart and force things into place while putting them back together.
The process was manageable and I like that I was able to maintain a stock look for $20 (all-in) instead of whatever insane amount someone would ask on ebay and not have to modify the
fiberglass.
I made a backup bolt in case this one fails. But if the whole assembly craps out, I would give this kit a shot.
http://www.fiberglassrv.com/forums/f...ers-83011.html