rounded bolt head-hydro drain plug

[aebsmithcreek]

no offense taken Don, its a valid question. yeah i did make sure with righty tighty...... already got work lights SoundGuy, just out of gas. my day starts before 5am and ends at the earliest at 6pm + a hour driving time to get home.
i hope it dont come to easy outs cause i have never used one that it didnt break off and create another project, maybe lack of skill on my part i admit but ya gotta work with what ya got. i really think welding a nut on is the way to go on a bolt this size, aint found it in the service manual but judging by the head size i'm thinkin 5/8, that on top of how tight it was torqed down sways me toward welding. oh man i just noticed the time, i gotta start playin catch up already, time to hit the door. hope you all have a great day today and a better tomorrow!!

earl.

 

[Soundguy]

i hear ya.. my day starts at 5:45 am, and doesn't usually end till 11pm, then a ride home and walk the dogs, then lucky to be in bed by midnight.

if you don't like easy-outs.. don't use them.

drill the bolt hollow, then keep stepping up in 6/4 sizes till you are 95% thru and just have a shell of threads into the parent metal that you can then pick out, chase out, or THEN safely use a fluted or square profile tap to take the hollow thin shell out, which by then will likely have shrunk due to being cored out, plus the heat.

this is where lefty bits come into play.. drill out with lefty's when getting close to the diamaeter of the bolt.. they usually bite and suck the threaded chunk back out.

soundguy

 

[woodlandfarms]

I was jammed up just like this once. I got so excited when the bolt started moving I forgot all the fluid behind it. Keep your oil pan close.

 

[Short Game]

If you are going to weld, go to a place like Fastenal and get a coupling nut. If you deform the end you weld, you'll still have plenty left to get a socket on.

 

[Soundguy]

tsc has them too.. but I would grind the zinc off...

 

[Short Game]

tsc has them too.. but I would grind the zinc off...

They come in bright steel too.

 

[aebsmithcreek]

more good advice all around!!! @ WoodLandFarms, very good advice, espeacialy with me bein a newbie. this is my first tractor, only had it 14 months and my first time not havin full use of it. i could easily forget and take a swim @ SoundGuy, how critical is it to drill a nearly perfectly plumb hole using that method? @ ShortGame, excellent sugestion!! i couldnt count the number of those i have used hangin pipe hangers and equipment and i hadn't even thought of that thats whats so great about forums like this one, you get the benefit of thousands of years of experiance when it is combined and for newbs like me it is invaluable. i hate to admit it but since i fell into the gig i'm workin now i rarely touch anything mechanical that isn't hvac and even then i can pretty much pick and choose what i want to tackle and with the changes that have taken place over the last 15 years since i came out of the feild it is a pretty much taken the fun out of it. almost everything i have is automated and contolled by computer,me comin up before computers or even video games am a fish out of water. this tractor is gonna change all that cause i just cant pay a dealer unless its a last resort. i wanted them to do the required maintanance just to avoid warranty questions but just oil and lube,air cleaner etc' was gonna be better than 400 bucks!! NADA!!
Thanks Fella's.

earl.

 

[Short Game]

If I can't do my own maintenance, I probably can't have it. I live on what they call "entitlements." I think they are about to decide that old vets are no longer entitled.

 

[Soundguy]

SoundGuy, how critical is it to drill a nearly perfectly plumb hole using that method? earl.

since you are trying to drill thru, and relieve pressure, the more centered and tru you drill the better, as you will keep stepping up to larger sizes. if way off center you can't step up as much as you will get into parent metal.

soundguy

 

[aebsmithcreek]

thanks to all you guys the drain plug is out.
i tried the vice grips and it was a no go, they just rode down the taper of the head so i convinced myself i couldnt make it worse and welded the rod coupler to it, about 6 or 8 sharp wacks with the hammer and a steady burst with the impact and she backed out!!! SoundGuy, you know i'm kickin myself now dont ya? from the time i made my mind up to trust my welding to the time i was smilin was probably less than 10 minutes. and the rod coupler was an excellent suggestion. the only rod couplings i could lay my hands on was zinc coated so i hit it with a file and welded from the coupling onto the drain bolt. to get it good and steady i built a platform under the sump with 4x4 and 2x4 blocks and threaded a bolt into the coupling and then backed the bolt out to put upward pressure on the coupling, this allowed me to ground directly to the coupling, that was a big help because when it was grounded to a bolt on the sump it still was a little hard to start an arc through the zinc. the John Deere dealer didnt have a drain bolt so after i get through hauling trash to the dupm this morning i'm off in search of one, i'm hoping the napa store about 20 miles up the road stocks some stuff that might interchange since they have alot of customers that use tractors in there buissiness's if not its about 30 miles in the opposite direction to the coast where one of the parts stores that caters to the marine customers may have something that will work. i still have to pull and clean the sump screen and am sure it will be plugged up tight, the hydro oil was terrible how in the world could it get so bad in a year? it is seldom stored outside but it is so milky i couldnt beleive it, it looked fine through the site glass. i had promised it to a co-worker who makes bio but it appears to have so much moisture in it that he may not be able to use it. is there anything i can do to displace the moisture in the future? it doesnt get much use through the winter, would running it at idle for 30 minutes to an hour a couple of times a month be enough to boil the moisture off?
thanks again to everyone, not only for the good advice but for the boost in confidence, i feel much more confident in the unknown than i did when i woke up yesterday morning.:thumbsup::thumbsup:

earl.