Stuck Bolts and Heating Techniques

I have 2 stuck wheel weight bolts and 1 stuck rim clamp bolt on the rear rims of my Farmall M. None of them are threaded, just rust locked. I drilled holes in each one on the edge so that penetrating oil could get to the seam, but I need to heat them too.

When heating something like this, do you heat the cast wheel to expand it off the bolt, or try to heat the bolt and let it cool down and hope it broke a little free?



Thanks

Heat the HELL out of the BOLT, then let it cool to ambient, then repeat a time or two.

You can do some of both to good effect.

One word of caution -- if you have a tire on that rim, let the air out and remove the valve core from the stem before applying much heat that can transmit through the rims to the air in the tire.

Where they're not threaded you're ahead of the game.

What the heat does is break up and crumble the corrosion between the bolt and the hole. I usually give it a good heating all over, both the bolts and the surrounding iron and let that cool. If it needs more, I'll give it another shot, focusing on the bolt. If you've got the heads on the other side, put heat to the head until it's mostly red, and let that cool. While it's still good and hot but not necessarily sizzling, give a shot of whatever your favorite penetrating lubricant may be, wherever you can get it (around the bolt head, between the pats, anyplace you can get it and keep applying it. As it cools you can see the stuff draw in to the small spaces opening up as the corrosion crumbles. Give the surrounding area more heat, starting well away from the bolt if it needs a third shot, to expand the outer part, then go for it while the outer part is still hot.

If you have an O/A set up, you know more about how to heat with that than I do. Myself, I use just the home-owner handheld torch with Mapp gas (hotter, faster) instead of propane.

For driving them out, another old bolt (you'll bung up the threads at the end) the same size or one size down is useful. If you have a good drift of a size that will work that's preferable. What I'm saying is you may still need to wallop these things to get them started and I have a box full of bent and chipped taper punches as testament to what not to use.

In your particular situation, it may also be useful, in addition to any heat, to try tapping a wedge, pry bar or chisel between the parts to be separated, if you can find a place to fit one that will let you swing a hammer or get good prying leverage. That might pop it loose enough to drive them out more easily.

Patience and persistence in the right balance is key -- swearing or other verbal lubrication is allowed and can be therapeutic. Keep the hammer rule always in mind -- Hit with progressively bigger hammers until you break something, then back down one size. ;8^)

G'luck!

The bolt, the bolt, the bolt.

Heat the bolt red hot, douse it with cold water and take it off with a pair of piers. The sudden contraction caused by the cold water will break all rust and surface that has become fused

If they are not threaed then you should be able to get them moving with a BFH or better yet an air hammer.

Heat the bolt then let it cool off,squirt it with penetrating oil and let it set about 10 minutes before you beat on it.Also you could use a big brass drift punch so it doesnt swell the end you are beating on,rig up a handle so you dont hit your hand(vice grips will work)then hit it with a sledge hammer and it might come out without any heat.You may have to get a brave person to hold the drift while you really pound on it.Squirt it with penetrating oil,try and turn it with a wrench first before you beat on it.If you can turn it,it will come out.

You might want to soak the whole rear wheel in a vat of ATF. Then heat the wheel red hot and throw ice cold water on it, then beat the snot out of it with a sledge. Then get go a wheel that is not all broke up to replace it where the bolts were not rusted in.

Or,Or,Or you could do what Mike M said and have it out is a few seconds.
I seem to have read in your post that they were not threaded.

I had several wheel clamp bolts rusted fast in my one Oliver 66's last fall. I had to swing a little hard on a couple but I had them out in the time it would take for you to walk to a computer. I try to keep the square headed 1/2" bolts on the shelf.

Hey guys, we're talking cast iron here. Heating it to red hot is O.K., but throwing ice water on red hot cast iron is NOT a good idea.

Your first hole is already too off center. Go to Sears get the carbide straight 1/8" shaft for dremel and start grinding.Your hole may already be into the thread so grind carefully and when it gets to a thin casing pick it all out and run a tap through it to clean out metal left.Take your time watch to not hit sides.

I'd get a victim to hold the drift for you while you pound on it with a 10# sledge (give him a Vise-Grip to hold the drift).
If that doesn't move it, heat the bolt until it glows, then drift on it again. If it doesn't move, heat it again, then let it cool.
KEEP THE WATER OR ANY OTHER QUENCHING FLUID AWAY, unless you want several pieces of cast...

Rod

I just went through this on my 2520 hub to rim wedge bolts. Out of the 16 wedge bolts 10 I got out by putting a nut on the bolt and beating it out with the maul. The other six would not budge. I tried drilling but kept chipping the drill bits, resharpinging, etc. Finally I said there has to be a better way so I torched off the bolt head on the back side and cut the threads off the bolt on the front side. Now with the remaining bolt flush with the casting on both sides I heated the bolt from both ends cherry red trying to drive as much heat into the bolt as possible. The casting did not turn red, the rust was enough of an insulator. I did this a couple of times, let the bolt completly cool and then drove it out. I never dreamed rust could be such a good weld. Now I'm soaking the 3 pt arms in penetrating oil before I go at them with the torch. Paul

A commentator is just a plain ordinary ole spud isn't it? mEl

Alright, thanks guys. I have these wheel centers off of the tractor and on the ground, so I can basically do whatever i need to with them. Here is the M, but before I got the wheel centers off:



Thanks again

In my experience, the best thing is to apply heat directly to the bolt until it starts to glow cherry red. Then drive it out hot. If it stops moving, reheat it and continue driving.

I never saw the logic in heating up a stuck bolt or pin, then quenching it. What you want to do is to reduce the friction between the parts, quenching the parts or allowing them to cool just returns things to how they were before you started.

Bob is right. Don't heat the cast. The heating/cooling breaks up the rust and works best. The hole you drilled can't hurt.

(quoted from post at 19:51:57 03/02/09) In my experience, the best thing is to apply heat directly to the bolt until it starts to glow cherry red. Then drive it out hot. If it stops moving, reheat it and continue driving.

I never saw the logic in heating up a stuck bolt or pin, then quenching it. What you want to do is to reduce the friction between the parts, quenching the parts or allowing them to cool just returns things to how they were before you started.

Click to expand...

The logic for heating and then letting it cool is to heat the bolt until it expands past its elastic limit. More heat will expand it more and cause the bolt to deform as it tries to expand larger than the hole. As it cools it will shrink. Since it has been deformed it will now have a smaller diameter than it had originally.

I had an OLD steam engine guy teach me this trick and it has worked every time. He used his steamers for years and worked on that kind of things for over 60 years. Trust me, boilers have the worst stuck threaded items you will ever find next to exhaust manifolds. He said heat the bolt to a low red (just below cherry red) and keep it there for a while to let the heat "soak" into the threads all the way down to the bottom, that expands the metal of the bolt and the metal around it. Then while wearing thick leather gloves take a wet rag (I use an Ice cube)and lightly quench the bolt which will shrink the bolt (and also not let it twist off because it is hot and elastic) when the bolt is cooled for a couple seconds then put the wrench to it and bump it loose and if it binds, then bump it back tight, keep up the back and forward movement till it comes out. If it starts squeaking, re heat and start over. use no liquids of anykind as 99% of the time the threads are so tight and clogged with debris it won't get in there anyway and it will cool the surrounding metal which will make it tighter again. Now for the bad news, this will be hard to do on the broken off and flush bolt you have so you may have to heat the surrounding area to chery red(to expand it) around the hole and use an easy out. In this case, keep the heat off the bolt as much as possible and cool the tip of the easy out with ice to help shrink the bolt. Be careful not to use too much force, you do not want to snap off the easyout in there!