I don't recall all the wrong steps I took, but I believe the first mistake was being in a hurry. Second was that I thought it wouldn't cost too much to replace it (turned out to be quite expensive). Third I assumed these were standard things (wrong - the size was long retired and it took at least a month to find one, and then only because I probably got lucky). These prior reasons led me to mistakenly think it wouldn't be a problem if I had to drill the thing out. If I had known the trouble and cost to get a new one, I would hopefully had taken more time with this. Because then I loosened the screw that connects the wedge to the point where the nut rotated and I lost track of it. Which led to hammering and banging and then drilling and ultimately the thing was useless. In hindsight I should have waited until I got everything else off the bike (its own project given the age of it) and then I could have turned the bike upside down more easily and focused on the task at hand; probably using heat on the frame and tapping it out gently. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to mention companies but I found it at a place at sells Tandems on the East coast. Let me know if anyone needs more thx.