Undoing paranoid bolt welds

[Leyland1980]

Previous owner of a friends 110 did this

81662 a Dixon bate tow hitch with 6 bolts into the threaded holes in the rear cross member all with gobs of weld securing them.

Must have been a particularly high steel scrap value at the time!

Any bright ideas as to how to remove the tow hitch and if cutting the bolts, retrieving the threads from the captive nuts.

Cheers

John

[bee utey]

Cut the welds with a small angle grinder, a dremel or other suitable rotary tool, then undo the bolts as normal. If you're lucky a socket and some brute force might just break the welds in any case.

[kharns flair]

Thanks for the suggestion, and interested in anything else too. Every bolt on both sides has been welded, seems the previous owner lived in a tough area, or didn't want to loose their trailer.

Main concern was on the inside of the towing eye by the fuel tank, but apart from a steady hand so you don't slip and hit it with something rotary, would people think it was particularly risky grinding things off with the tank in-situ?

[bee utey]

Thanks for the suggestion, and interested in anything else too. Every bolt on both sides has been welded, seems the previous owner lived in a tough area, or didn't want to loose their trailer.

Main concern was on the inside of the towing eye by the fuel tank, but apart from a steady hand so you don't slip and hit it with something rotary, would people think it was particularly risky grinding things off with the tank in-situ?
So long as there are no visible fuel wet areas and the breather is safely venting away from the tank area I'd have no qualms grinding the welds off the towing eye. However a thoroughly water soaked towel, woollen cloth or leather welding cape covering the tank stops stray sparks doing any damage to the plumbing.

[Leyland1980]

If it were petrol then no grinding near the tank but as it's TD5 and the flashpoint of diesel is 52oC and you are in the UK then I would go for it.

I cut a tank access panel from above the tank with a grinder and it in situ.

Once you have got the tow bar off you could put a decent recovery point (see Nugget Stuff) and then you don't need to worry about the ones on the chassis, they are only really for lashers!

[Rurover]

Another option may be to get an air chisel (they're pretty cheap in fact) and use that to cut the weld away from the bolt heads.

eg: AIR Chisel GUN KIT With 4 Chisels | eBay

No danger of doing damage to peripheral components as there may be with an angle grinder, and certainly no issues with fuel igniting.

Though as others have said, diesel is much less volatile than petrol so either option is pretty safe if you take precautions.

Alan

[isuzurover]

I would and indeed have done cutting and grinding in that area with no problems. Just do it outside in a well ventilated area. Disconnect battery first.

I would use a thin cutting disc on an angle brinder to release the bolts. Then once they are out clean up the resr with a normal grinding disc.

Where the towing eye is, It would be best just to cut through the bolt and leave the tab/eye untouched, as if you aren't careful you will cut through the chassis which is only ~2mm thick.

[Bigbjorn]

Use a die grinder with a carbide burr. Knock the welds off in seconds and little risk of damaging the bolt head.h

[kharns flair]

Dear all, many thanks for the suggestions, the plough is gone! Went with the Dremel - an amazingly powerful little grinder, with fingertip control. Welds vanished in seconds. Everything important survived untouched and I could sell or reattach the tow-bar if needed.

There were welds all over the place in the end, including along the arms and to the chassis in different places. Resorted to a breaker bar / propane torch / hammer / hacksaw / blood, sweat, tears. The bolts were corroded and probably hadn't moved in a decade. All seemed to vary in size too - so my Grandad's inherited imperial tools were well used to compliment the modern metric stuff.