Dead battery, broken exhaust stud, tow ports, gas tanks, welding, carbs.... YIKES!

[Spanner]

Swap the valve covers over. Put the 'clean' cover on the head with the broken stud. It'll probably hold ok with some RTV sealant as a glue and one stud missing.
The heavier cover with pump attached will work on the other side. May need longer fuel/vac hoses.

 

[/pine]

Saga continues...
Removed the valve cover with the fuel pump on it... or tried to, at least. One of the valve cover bolts snapped off effortlessly. It snapped off deep in the hole. No chance of welding on it to get it out that I can see. It's in an "ear" on the side bottom corner of the head with open air about 3/16" wide behind it. Drilled all the way through the bolt. OK. Tried an EZ out and it snapped inside the bolt.... Good Gravy!!! So now I got an EZ out stuck deep in a hole in a bolt stuck deep in a hole with no good options.

So I proceeded to remove the fuel pump from the valve cover and gut EVERYTHING fuel pump related from the valve cover. There's a spring, an arm, a diaphragm, and two valvey looking things in the pump housing. Removed one of the 90 degree fittings from the outside of the pump housing and installed a 1/8" pipe thread plug. Used RTV gasket maker and ran a bead around the pump housing and installed it back onto the valve cover. So at least that is ready to go back on and act as a vacuum source for the new vacuum fuel pump while I try and figure out how to get the broken EZ out removed.... or buy a new head.

You say you drilled all the way through the bolt...any chance you can punch the broken ez-out out from the other end?...then drill and re-tap?

 

[MossRoad]

Swap the valve covers over. Put the 'clean' cover on the head with the broken stud. It'll probably hold ok with some RTV sealant as a glue and one stud missing.
The heavier cover with pump attached will work on the other side. May need longer fuel/vac hoses.

Good thought..... I'll give it a think. Thanks.

 

[MossRoad]

You say you drilled all the way through the bolt...any chance you can punch the broken ez-out out from the other end?...then drill and re-tap?

No room. The ear is about an inch thick. Then there's a gap below the ear of about 3/16". Then another ear. Not enough room to get in there and lift or punch the tip of the EZ out back out. I can see the tip, but its about 1/32" from the second ear. I could get a tip of a pry bar in there, but I'd be prying agianst the second ear, which is only about 3/16" thick as well. It's a heat fin. It'll snap off if I pry against it.

And its an aluminum head, and steel EZ out... maybe I'll try a Dremel tool and see if I can grind the broken piece of EZ out down to a concave and get a drill bit in there and try again.

In the mean time, the more I think about Spanner's suggestion, I may just try and goober some RTV in there as a wide gasket and see how it holds. It's only a cover and has no vibration or force from the fuel pump arm anymore. We'll see how it goes.... tomorrow.

 

[ponytug]

Dear MR,

I have a few questions/thoughts. Could get a thin screw driver in there and pry against the EZ out to loosen it? If there is any sort of gap, I have been able to dislodge EZ outs pretty readily because they tend not to have engaged very far. If it works, great then plan B, if not, plan B.

PlanB: What about just drilling the whole thing out and put in a helical coil threaded insert? e.g. a "Heli-coil"? If you are just holding a cover on, it should work just fine.

Plan C: new head. My time spent repairing a tractor tends to have a low price, but at some point...

This is why I find working on old machinery such a challenge- I go to tighten something trivial and then the next thing I know I am fifteen steps down some repair caused by the repair to the repair to the repair.

Good luck! I feel for you.

All the best,

Peter

 

[V65ozzie]

Put the oversized nut on the broken stud. Roll out the wire feed welder. BZZ BZZ BZZ BZZZ BZZ the nut is welded to the stud. Backs out easily with a wrench while its still hot. Worked great!

Been pulling studs like that for years, except I weld the nut on, let it cool, head the manifold and zip it out with an impact gun. Work for subsurface breaks too, just put a washer over the hole, weld through to the broken stud, weld on a bolt, cool. Heat manifold, gun to pull. I've made a lot of money pulling busted studs over the years. Some manifolds you just can't buy anymore, and laser removal is very expensive, if you can find a place to do it.
Even pulled some out of aluminum heads, a little trickier and sometime requires a little clearance drilling. Can't heat up aluminum heads much, adds to the difficulty factor.

 

[MossRoad]

Dear MR,

I have a few questions/thoughts. Could get a thin screw driver in there and pry against the EZ out to loosen it? If there is any sort of gap, I have been able to dislodge EZ outs pretty readily because they tend not to have engaged very far. If it works, great then plan B, if not, plan B.

PlanB: What about just drilling the whole thing out and put in a helical coil threaded insert? e.g. a "Heli-coil"? If you are just holding a cover on, it should work just fine.

Plan C: new head. My time spent repairing a tractor tends to have a low price, but at some point...

This is why I find working on old machinery such a challenge- I go to tighten something trivial and then the next thing I know I am fifteen steps down some repair caused by the repair to the repair to the repair.

Good luck! I feel for you.

All the best,

Peter

I think the fin below that hole is too thin to pry up against to push the EZ out back out of the hole. I don't want to snap it off. I was able to get the blade of a flat screwdriver between that lower fin and the tip of the EZ out, but got nervous when I applied a significant amount of force and the EZ out didn't budge.

I also tried tapping the top of the EZ out in the reverse rotation it grips to with a small punch and hammer trying to loosen it up so I could pop it out from underneath, but it isn't budging.

I put on a thick bead of RTV high temp gasket maker and put the cover back on. I hooked up the new vacuum fuel pump and tested. Working good. I'll see how long if (ever) it takes to develop a valve cover gasket leak with that one bolt missing.

 

[ponytug]

I was thinking of prying down the main hole, rather than from below. Could you put a metal pin in a drill chuck and try to use friction to back it out?

All the best,

Peter

 

[MossRoad]

Tried that. No luck.

 

[MossRoad]

Here's the parts I gutted from behind the valve cover...



And the new fuel pump...



You can see the missing valve cover bolt in the hole to the lower left in the second picture.

I put a plug in the old OUT port on the mechanical fuel pump carcass, and fed the vacuum to the new pump from the old IN port on the mechanical fuel pump carcass. There is nothing left behind the mechanical fuel pump carcass on the valve cover but a hole.

I decided to mount the new vacuum fuel pump on the fuel tank support with a 1/4-20 bolt. I also added a fuel shutoff valve before the new pump and fuel filter. Tractor starts and runs fine, but the test will be when the level in the fuel tank drops lower than the carb. That should happen in about another hour of operation.