Broken T20 mounting bracket

[tbone9]

Good for you. I'll have to do the same someday. My exhaust is loud enough the clank doesn't bother me. Kinda like Turing the radio up when your car makes a noise lol

[Rusty-Gunn]

Update on the broken "ear" brackets... The other side (passenger) is now broken. It obviously broke late last season, but I didn't know it then. I discovered it yesterday when we took out the engine to install new primary chains.
I expect I'll beef it up with new flat bar material, bolted together. Adding angle iron might be added for more stiffness and strength.
I believe what caused this bracket to break is two of the bottom mounting holes in the main frame have enlargened a bit, causing the T-20 to twist, and pounding the holes bigger. Bigger holes causes more T-20 movement, which causes bolts and brackets to break.
This will be an easy enough fix though.
Inspect your T-20 mounting brackets, amphib drivers. Just maybe you might find a crack, or break, in your bracket(s).

[Canadian_Zuk]

My T-20 mount holes were egged out as well when I 1st got my machine, same cause, T-20 mounting bolts worked loose and allowed the trans to rock in the mount. Some guys just weld the hole up and drill new holes, make sure you mark the holes very carefully if you do this. I've seen 2 examples where they simply welded a thick washer to the Max frame to fix the hole. I cut new 1/4" plates with new holes to fit in the U channel then welded everything up. The frame is now 3x thicker where those holes are

Here'sa link to my 1st repair

http://www.6x6world.com/forums/max-a...surection.html

then it happened again but the 2nd time the lower bolts just snapped in the T-20, this was a messy repair followed by more brackets to tie the T-20 down better. What I did works well enough but I should have made these last brackets bolt in for easier service. I may change them when I pull the T-20 again this summer.

http://www.6x6world.com/forums/max-a...ose-again.html

[Rusty-Gunn]

Thank you CZ. I think the "ear" brackets should be made of quarter-inch stock, not the thinner stock used. (Costs go up, I'm sure).
I'm leaning towards the extra plate added to the frame, welded on, and new holes drilled.
The issue is my nephew, whom is a welder, has his welding equipment out of town. And I'm not so keen on stripping off all axles to get the frame out just yet. I can fix the broken bracket easy enough though.

[Rusty-Gunn]

I used quarter-inch steel bar material, two inches wide,
and cut to ten inches in length, to fix the broken bracket.
I got it bolted to the main frame, and to the bracket itself.
I also added a shorter length, also bolted, that goes from
the bracket top to the T-20 mounting bolt (top). Ugly looking
fix, but it will get me on the road again.

[Canadian_Zuk]

As long as it works who cares what it looks like

[Rusty-Gunn]

CZ... As it turns out there was a broken bolt that left the
threaded stud stuck deep un there.
I used your center hole tool to drill a 1/8" hole.
Although my extractors couldn't get
the stud out, even after adding heat,
I ended up drilling the stud out and chased
the threads with a 3/8"-16 tap. Overall it
worked like a charm. Thank you very much.
Pics in my gallery.