Using Welder to Remove Stubborn Bolts

[Tinker Joe 2]

Now that is some Iron, I bet what that cost we could retire on, I have worked on Dozers and Hoe's the biggest was a Cat D-8 a toy compared to what you do, thanks for the post of the pic's, Joe

[Lostone]

Rear out of a Cat 100 Ton Truck. Took the pic a few years ago when the truck was delivered.

[Lostone]

Did about 50 of them here while back on the rollers, under the rails on a JD 450 Dozer, then had the rails blasted and went back together, that was a job, sure glad to have an impact.
Lostone, that is a big bearing and race, that is some big machines you all pay with.

Its all relative...

[Tinker Joe 2]

Did about 50 of them here while back on the rollers, under the rails on a JD 450 Dozer, then had the rails blasted and went back together, that was a job, sure glad to have an impact.
Lostone, that is a big bearing and race, that is some big machines you all pay with.

[Lostone]

FWIW..... a MIG bead on the inside of a stubborn stuck wheel bearing race will usually shrink them enough to pop right out.......

Thats how we used to remove bearing races on mining haul trucks. They were 2 foot across. Weld a bead all way around and leave. Once they cooled, they usually fell out on their own. We'd use liquid nitrogen to chill them to get them back in

[Metjunkie]

FWIW..... a MIG bead on the inside of a stubborn stuck wheel bearing race will usually shrink them enough to pop right out.......

Another FWIW. When rebuilding extruder gearboxes with slightly worn bearing bores, we would drag a stick rod across the bore, not enough to start the arc, just enough to drop some metal to take up the slop until the gearboxes could be sent to the machine shop for repair. Similar to what knurling would do. Works surprisingly well.

[H80N]

FWIW..... a MIG bead on the inside of a stubborn stuck wheel bearing race will usually shrink them enough to pop right out.......

[Lostone]

I run into this all the time. Every plow truck I work on this happens to me. Without fail. I just put a little heat on the knuckle and flange, then use a Williams/Snap-On TurboSocket and they come right out. Those sockets are, without a doubt, one of the best tools you can own. There big time savers.

[Oldgrandad]

Nice repair, looks like maybe you have done this once or twice before. Thanks for sharing, there are plenty of people out there that will use this method in the future. And for those of you out there that have not heard of Kroil it is among the best penetrating oils on the market.

[ryanjones2150]

I think the tig was the right choice. I have some welding rod that is made for extracting bolts, but in your case, I think it would've been way more difficult and might even have not worked at all.

[Olivero]

Not bad. I have heard of this method but never tried it, definetley saving it for the future.

I did have to repair a cast steel or cast iron roof drain once. It was leaking around the flange and would drip into the office below it.

So i went up with my trusty old drill, some bits, a tap and some bolts. Drilled the hole out a bit, threaded it to a 5/16" X 18 bolt, WELL. I got a bit ahead of myself and tried using the drill to tap faster... What a mistake that was.

tap broke inside, to remove the flange would be destroying that section of the roof so later that day, brought my tig up there, cut out the hole and removed the tap, then put the pieces I cut out back in and welded it back up. It worked

Amazing what welding can do.

[Don52]

The other two were slightly rounded so I just heated the bolts by welding a dome on the top of the hex head of the bolt. I used a little Kroil and the bolts came right out. Welding is a nice way to remove a stubborn bolt.

[Don52]

My customer was replacing the front wheel bearings on his Suburban. The bolts that retained the flange for the wheel bearing to the knuckle were frozen. His helper rounded the head of three of the bolts. I cleaned up the top of the bolts with a Carbide burr using Foredom flex shaft grinder and some Acetone. MIG wouldn’t work because the hole in the hub was too small for the MIG nozzle. I could have stick welded it but I wanted to camp out on top of the head of the bolt to really heat it up, so I used TIG instead. I used a conventional TIG nozzle to fit through the small access hole in the hub to gain access to the top of the bolts. One bolt was so badly rounded that I had to weld a nut on the top.