My Monstrous task… Journey.. Begins..

[shawnstock]

DAY 1
OK guys... Finally got my project home... Couldn't do much with it at work... Coarse it stormed and after carrying the cage into the garage while lightning lit up the sky, I figured the rest could wait tell morning…

Did spend some time sanding down the cage, but not much else yet…

DAY 2
Looks a bit better after a quick wash...

Took a lot of pictures, of every piece and section... (Maybe a bit overdone...)

First task is a total strip down, but first I let my girls try it out... lol....

Just a quick push down the driveway and they were thrilled… (Was my youngest B-Day… she loved the present… Hehe…)

Ok…. Now for the tear-down…

 

[DaiSan76]

Don't let Mysteryboy see that rear suspension. He'll hop up on his soapbox and preach your ear off.

 

[OzFab]

Well, he's gonna see it now...

 

[shawnstock]

Day 2 Cont.
The tear down went very good, except more troubles were found as I went. Some minor, but a few major.

Broken weld on one of the seat bars…

Burst in one of the tubing… Guess the main frame goes back to work for some minor welding.

The last to be taken apart was the front suspension and that was when I ran into problems…. The driver’s side suspension has been in a wreck and one of the bolt ends were sheared off.

Now you see it….

Now you don’t…

The biggest problem is that three of the bolts, to include the sheared off one, are seized up in place. I spent the rest of day 2 and days 3 & 4 trying to free up the bolts. I have pounded… drowned them with penetrating oil… and pounded some more….

Borrowing a propane torch from work today to try heating them up to break them free… Hope it works, but I will have three bolts to replace, hope they are easy to locate.

Will keep you updated.

 

[shawnstock]

(Guess I still have to wait for the Mods to approve my pictures that I posted yesterday... )
(((Up now... Thank you!!!)))

Well here is a small update..

Took a propane torch home from work to try and unfreeze the three shoulder bolts in the front left suspension, but didn't have time to try it... Only had time to spray them down with penetrating oil again...

Then today at work, our mechanical engineer said that the torch wouldn't work, cause it couldn't get it hot enough and that I would need a settling torch... Well... He may be right, but with the last few days worth of penetrating oil soaks, I am going to try the propane torch anyway... nothing to lose, right?...

 

[Brandon1023]

You may have to drill them out. I'm in the process of rebuilding my V6, so I know how it goes when it comes to frozen bolts. Especially on the exhaust of a car *shivers*

 

[shawnstock]

Day 6

Got home and broke out the propane torch… then the hammer… that was when the yelling started… (Guess I should have made sure my wife didn’t have a headache first…)

(Man… I need a work shed again…) Ended up just spraying the bolts down again with penetrating fluid…

Finished up the rest of the evening just cleaning up parts and doing some minor sanding….

Day 7

Yeah! No headache!....

Back to torch and hammer….

No avail…. Yet…. Here are my problem child’s… just three… three that are keeping me from going any further…

The one that was sheared off…

Fought with them for awhile, then went on to my rear section… and worked a bit on it… hope to have the rear and the seat finished on Friday and be able to paint them….

 

[OzFab]

a settling torch...

Never heard of one... Are you sure he didn't say "an acetylene torch"?

If the shaft of the bolt is locked in the hole, try undoing the nut; either way, the nut will loosen or the bolt will free up & you can remove the assembly from the frame...

 

[4wdewok]

My suggestion would be to get the angle grinder out, cut the nuts off and see if you can knock the bolts out with a punch. New bolts are reasonably cheap. If that doesn't work, and looking at how bent the arm is in that last pic, it may require you cutting the whole arm off and making a new arm from scratch.
Hope you get it sorted.

 

[machinist@large]

Do you have access to an arbor press? If so, I (personally) would use a cutoff wheel to go inside of the moveable links and cut the heads and tails off the bolts, the use the press to push the remains out of the center sections. You'll want to be as accurate as possible, so you can add washers the same thickness as your cut off disk to compensate for where the cuts had to be made....

 

[B.M.800]

My suggestion would be to get the angle grinder out, cut the nuts off and see if you can knock the bolts out with a punch. New bolts are reasonably cheap. If that doesn't work, and looking at how bent the arm is in that last pic, it may require you cutting the whole arm off and making a new arm from scratch.
Hope you get it sorted.

I agree here, you should be able to easily find replacement at a hardware store.