T-20 broke loose again

[Canadian_Zuk]

Ugh, sheared a lower mount bolt in the T-20, caught it before all hell broke loose. Time for a proper cradle in this thing and might as well split the shifters and replace bearings while the motor is out. So much for the rest of duck season lol. At least she'll be tip top for winter this year.

[Mike]

Yeah, it sucks to stop and rework the cradle but at least that will keep this from happening again and then you can enjoy it without worrying about it. Good luck.

[Rusty-Gunn]

I hope you got the broken bolt out. Making a T-20 rear bracket
is not really differcult at all. I used 1.5"x1/8" angle iron on mine. They do keep the T-20 from moving and breaking the mounting bolts.
Please share pics of the cradle to make, I'd like to see it.

[Canadian_Zuk]

I hope you got the broken bolt out. Making a T-20 rear bracket
is not really differcult at all. I used 1.5"x1/8" angle iron on mine. They do keep the T-20 from moving and breaking the mounting bolts.
Please share pics of the cradle to make, I'd like to see it.

I brought the Max home from the cabin on Monday, the bolt is still in there, I haven't even looked at yet. I'll tear into it as soon as I finish with my Honda Forman, Ol Red is getting all new bearings and a hydraulic disk brake conversion this week. I will take a bunch of pics as I go along for sure.

[Canadian_Zuk]

I finally had some time to start working on the Max today, I pulled the T-20 out to asses the damage. Both mounting bolts on the left side broke, one was 5/16" below flush and the other about 1/2" or so. Not a good start.

In order to extract these as cleanly as possible with the tools I have available, I started by making a drill guide so I could drill the broken bolts dead center. I did this quickly by chucking a short bolt in the lathe and drilling through.






I threaded the guide into the hole on top of the broken bolt.



Then I drilled through the broken bolt, removed the guide and hammered a 4 flute extractor into the hole, applied a little heat and backed it out.




One down one to go...easy enough. I stuck the guide in the other hole, drilled it, applied some heat, hammered in the extractor and started to back it out. This is where my day went to crap. The extractor broke and this was the deeper hole.



After a few unsuccessful attempts to extract the extractor, then trying to shatter it with a small hardened punch I gave up and decided the only way I was going to get it out was to burn it out, but I don't have an EDM lol. So back to the lathe to make another guide. This time for a 1/16" welding electrode.


I put the guide in the hole and ran the little 6013 eltrode down the hole straight into the easy out with the welder running DC-



Within a few seconds I felt it push through the extractor and I released the electrode from the holder. The guide did it's job, the extractor flowed up the electrode inside the guide protecting the case half.



Tomorrow I'll restore that hole and start putting it all back together again but capture some more tranny bolts this time.

[Rusty-Gunn]

Drilling through a bolt to use as a guide is a great idea! I'll be sure to use this trick if I ever have a broken bolt stuck too deep. Thanks for sharing it.
I highly recommend installing rear mounting brackets to hold down the T20. The T20 needs all the help it can get.

[Andyman]

Nice fix

[Canadian_Zuk]

Drilling through a bolt to use as a guide is a great idea! I'll be sure to use this trick if I ever have a broken bolt stuck too deep. Thanks for sharing it.
I highly recommend installing rear mounting brackets to hold down the T20. The T20 needs all the help it can get.

Thank you.

Yes, rear mounting brackets is what I meant by craddle. I will over engineer the hell out of it lol

[msafi65]

Before the addition of the front frame bracket in 2008 I was seeing a lot of broken mount bolts in the 25-29 horse MAX IVs. The engineer that was working at the factory then told me not to use any grade 8 bolts as they are to brittle. I only use grade 5 now and it appears to be correct. I see less breakage even on a couple badly abused vehicles. Nice guide for burning out a hard part.

[JoeMeg]

Canadian Zuk,
Very creative ideas! Thank you for sharing!

[Rusty-Gunn]

Mark, thank you for the info about using grade five bolts. My M-IV has grade five simply because the local hardware store didn't have grade eight bolts, of which I thought would be better( stronger). Eight's are brittle? I didn't think they would be. I'll stick to fives now.

[Rusty-Gunn]

Canadian Zuk... Are you willing to sell drilled-through bolts? There might be a small market here. I am interested. (One of the two bolts that broke on my Max was indeed deep enough to benefit from your drilled bolt tool)

[Rabbit929]

I guess my machine has been in the shop most the time I've owned it, t20 breaking the mounts is an actual problem?!

[Canadian_Zuk]

Canadian Zuk... Are you willing to sell drilled-through bolts? There might be a small market here. I am interested. (One of the two bolts that broke on my Max was indeed deep enough to benefit from your drilled bolt tool)

Sure, I'lldo that on here for 6x6 members for the cost of the bolts and shipping. Let me know what you need.

[Canadian_Zuk]

The grade 5 bolts make sense, these were grade 8 bolts. I'll head over to the hardware store and grab some new hardware. Thanks for the tip.

I started my rear mounts today. Made a cardboard template then traced that onto some 3/16" scrap I had lying around and 5 min later I was done. I love my plasma cutter, one of my best investments.