NCWanderer
Member
As I was cleaning my 1858 Remy, I decided to remove the nipples and clean them too. Since I've only put about 200 rounds through it, I wasn't too concerned about them seizing. As I started removing them with my new nipple wrench, I noticed they were very tight......too tight. And sure enough two of them refused to budge. So I soaked the cylinder 24 hours in WD-40 and tried again unsuccessfully. So I soaked them four days in Liquid Wrench. Same story. So I tried heating them in boiling water several times. Still they refused to budge. And by now I had damaged my nipple wrench so badly I was afraid to use it anymore for fear of damaging the nipples. Then I remembered I'd read on THR about making a wrench out of a socket. So I made me one and tried again after soaking a couple more days in Liquid Wrench. Nope.....still stuck and I was afraid I was going to wring them off. Then I remembered I'd read about a product called PB Blaster and another called Kroil. Couldn't find Kroil in any local stores but Lowes Had PB. So I let them soak about 4 hours in PB. (while I mowed the yard) And they were still pretty tight, but they both came out. Forgot to mention that I had already looked at the threads of the other nipples and there was something on them. I wonder if the knot heads at Pietta put thread locker on those threads? If they did .....it just don't make no sense. Do any of you know if they do? You can bet that when I but them back in, there will be anti seize on those threads and I'll only slightly snug them. And hey, I won't be buying any more nipple wrenches either. My homemade one worked great.