Posts Tagged ‘sheared bolts’
Good Enough
It has taken me until yesterday to finally get the hitch plate remounted on the ATV, because of the difficulty I experienced removing those two sheared off bolts. Well, and also due to the fact I spend most of my days away at the day-job instead of working on things that need fixing at home!
When gentle methods proved insufficient, I drilled through the bolts in order to use an “easy-out” bit to turn them out. I was able to pound against one of them to break the rust bond, and then it spun out effortlessly. For a minute, I forgot the reality of all such projects and I felt hopeful about quickly finishing the second bolt using the same process. Silly me. It wasn’t to be.
Try as I might, I could not get the second bolt to jar loose from the threads in the frame. And I did try, over and over again. I tried adding heat, I tried cooling with ice. I pounded it in every direction. I soaked it with rust-breaking fluids. I worked repeatedly to get the easy-out bit to rotate, all the while being cautious about not breaking that off in the hole. It never budged.
After days of effort, I was forced to make progress in order to get on with the next task at hand. I drilled out the bolt fragment as large as possible without completely trashing the threads, and put in a smaller diameter bolt that was long enough to secure with a nut on the bottom.
It wasn’t the perfect resolution to the problem, but it was a completely effective work around. The hitch plate is mounted again, and I can pull the trailer for chores. First order of business: relocate the composted piles of manure.
I needed to make new space for manure because I was running out of a place to put it. Out of the 6 piles I had in our composting area, 4 were no longer “cooking.” I spent most of the afternoon distributing composted manure to a variety of spots. Some is being used as fertilizer, but a lot if it is currently being used as fill in areas that need it. That happens to be the most convenient solution to two different issues.
I quickly get new space in the compost area, and at the same time, get to fill low spots that need it most. That’s good enough for me.
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Broken Bolts
I would like to fix the problem that occurred when I was pulling the ABI grader/rake behind the Grizzly and came upon an immovable buried rock. The two bolts holding the hitch plate to the ATV frame sheared, leaving me to finish that round pen job by hand.
Now that project has been completed and I am left with a mechanical challenge of getting the stubs of the two threaded bolts out of the frame. Easy-peesy. Just get one of those “As Seen on TV” EZ-Out bits and spin the darn things right out.
Or not.
I am guessing that the bolts were a hardened steel and I haven’t had any luck trying to drill them. The challenge is compounded by the rust that is holding the threads tight.
One thing that Dad always said, after a stint as a repairman on Caterpillar tractors, “If that didn’t work, get a bigger hammer.”
I think I’m also going to need a bigger drill and different bits, and maybe a welder, too.
I’m hesitant to figure out what the shear strength of those bolts was, because I’d rather not know how far beyond the rated towing force I was during my carefree spin pulling that grader around the perimeter of the pen.
Instead, I will just remember next time to proceed in smaller increments and not try to dig to full depth right from the get-go.
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Relative Something 