Thread: Heeeeeelp - Td5 Headbolt Broken - Need A Mobile Tig Welder

Gents,

THANKS to all of you for your thoughts & tips!

SPECIAL thanks to our BLKNIGHT.AUS in Shining armour who rode into our street in a rather nice Deep red Defender, towing a masive trailer full of tinker goodies like a compressor, spare wheels, solar panel, etc.

I was asked to have everything ready for an 08:00 AM start and after having scavanged my wife's 2 hair dryers whilst she was still sleeping , I set these up to heat up the area of interest and covered it all with a fibreglass insulating mat to stop the heat from ecaping.

IMG_0094.JPG

Upon Dave's arrival, we firstly tried to use the IRWIN bolt extractor on the bolt on its own, but it was soon apparent that this would not work on the account of a lack of body for the IRWIN to grip onto. See pictures earlier in this thread for the state of the bolt that we had to work with.

DAVE next set about welding the nut I had prepared (earlier for him) to the head of the bolt. I have to admit, I was a little retisent about this part of the operation, especially with Dave continuously muttering that there were no garauntees.......

IMG_0096.JPG

The welding looked to have gone OK, but when the IRWIN was coupled to the end of the airgun, the result was not all that rosey:

IMG_0097.JPG

Out came the dye grinder - for those of you who don''t know what this is, it is a pneumatic drill that looks and sounds like the one your dentist uses, except that this one had been on steroids whilst in the womb and makes mince of steel & aluminium, with the according mess!

On with the IRWIN on the end of the airgun again and ....... OOPS..... all the welds broke from the impacts of the airgun.

Looking at each other, we both knew that our chances for welding again were all but....ONE....

So, out came the welder again, a (lot) more agression from our side and a new (ex Ford wheel nut) was welded onto the headbolt like it had to survive the next Hiroshima attack....

IMG_0098.JPG

(Oh and YES, it IS a Disco..... )

I think the threat of further butchery subdued the bolt into submission.

Tomorrow all will be revealed whether the actions were worth doing.

If all else fails, a little birdy told me that an Isuzu 3.9 engine would bolt straight in without ANY modifications..... She HAS been warned (the car that is).

Thanks again to all of you for your support and hope to see you on a trail some time soon.

Auke

Great to hear good luck

Gotta love the PPE , shorts and thongs while welding

Originally Posted by rangieman

Great to hear good luck

Gotta love the PPE , shorts and thongs while welding

It's Ok he had his Nutrigrain and a few cups of coffee before he left here (he was invinsible).



Look at him in action, he just knows he's good.

Originally Posted by dobbo

It's Ok he had his Nutrigrain and a few cups of coffee before he left here (he was invinsible).



Look at him in action, he just knows he's good.

FIGJAM

Nothing like photos of a man on a mission, I like the casual look.

and success at the end,



john

and the outcome is........?

Originally Posted by rangieman

Great to hear good luck

Gotta love the PPE , shorts and thongs while welding

hey the hips legs and feet are all adequately protected by the workshirt thats untucked hanging down in front of them...

Originally Posted by 100I

FIGJAM

No need for that mate, Dobbos got my back,

Originally Posted by dobbo

Look at him in action, he just knows he's good.

See why blow my trumpet when other people are perfectly willing to.

Originally Posted by edddo

and the outcome is........?

Apparently as of about 1700 yesterday, its going. I called to double check that Id warned him about a post fuel system bleed/prestart check and got told that I had impeccable timing as it had been started only5 seconds prior to my call....


From my side of things I went with 5 stages of butchery available to me and wound up getting to stage 3/5 to get it out.

The stages were

1. irwin (bit of a dream I know but worth trying to start with)

2. internal weld the nut onto the head, Id hoped this would work as it minimises risk of heat shock to the top of the head. It didnt. As I had sort of expected after the irwin fetta cheesed the remnents of the bolt I had a good indication that there were multiple stress fractures inwhat was left of the metal. Application of bulk torque to the nut simple sheared more bolt head metal out.

3. Fillet welding a chamfered nut (wheel nuts are ideal for this on these kinds of bolts) onto the shoulder of the bolt after carefull centering.

4. Die grinding the bolt flatish and then using a drill in extractor (which so far IME if it wont work simply stalls or spins inthe hole it drills but Ive never broken one in place yet)

5.after the pilot had been setup by the drill in extractor deepening the hole with a left twist drill and then using a normal extractor AFTER carfully diegrinding the guts out of the head to allow the shoulder to be snapped off.


So It came out where I was expecting it would and fortunately not where I had feared it would resist to but annoyingly not where I would have liked it to.

I did consider multi and vice grips but getting them on would have left me no room to turn them.


Hopefully hes now got the injector seals sorted and its all good.

Originally Posted by Blknight.aus

hey the hips legs and feet are all adequately protected by the workshirt thats untucked hanging down in front of them...




No need for that mate, Dobbos got my back,



See why blow my trumpet when other people are perfectly willing to.



Apparently as of about 1700 yesterday, its going. I called to double check that Id warned him about a post fuel system bleed/prestart check and got told that I had impeccable timing as it had been started only5 seconds prior to my call....


From my side of things I went with 5 stages of butchery available to me and wound up getting to stage 3/5 to get it out.

The stages were

1. irwin (bit of a dream I know but worth trying to start with)

2. internal weld the nut onto the head, Id hoped this would work as it minimises risk of heat shock to the top of the head. It didnt. As I had sort of expected after the irwin fetta cheesed the remnents of the bolt I had a good indication that there were multiple stress fractures inwhat was left of the metal. Application of bulk torque to the nut simple sheared more bolt head metal out.

3. Fillet welding a chamfered nut (wheel nuts are ideal for this on these kinds of bolts) onto the shoulder of the bolt after carefull centering.

4. Die grinding the bolt flatish and then using a drill in extractor (which so far IME if it wont work simply stalls or spins inthe hole it drills but Ive never broken one in place yet)

5.after the pilot had been setup by the drill in extractor deepening the hole with a left twist drill and then using a normal extractor AFTER carfully diegrinding the guts out of the head to allow the shoulder to be snapped off.


So It came out where I was expecting it would and fortunately not where I had feared it would resist to but annoyingly not where I would have liked it to.

I did consider multi and vice grips but getting them on would have left me no room to turn them.


Hopefully hes now got the injector seals sorted and its all good.

Well done, Dave.

You go down in history as the "Super Land Rover mechanic" who does not give up

You are truly a dedicated man