Exhaust bolts

[TheBeastie]

Continuing saga I am afraid. Almost got both the nuts off the connection between tail pipe and middle section. The end of the bolt is now level with the edge of the nut in both cases but they refuse to budge the final 5mm or so.

I have not managed to round then in trying.

Is there any alternative to angle grinder? I ask since it seems a bl00dy nasty place to be lying under the truck with an angle grinder going. Even my rudimentary awareness of Health & Safety gets upset!

Frustrating to have got so close!!!

Any suggestions that might help would be most appreciated. Meanwhile I have bright and shiny new tail part all ready to bolt on once I can get the final stump of the old bit off.

I guess next week's job will be replacing the middle section :-)

[nickwilliams]

<suck eggs mode = on>

Have you tried oiling the threaded part which you have exposed by undoing the nut so far, and re-tightening so the oil gets into the threads of the nut, and then undoing it again? (Usually this takes several cycles to be successful.)

</suck eggs mode>

I've also solved this problem by sawing through the bolts with a junior hacksaw in the past. You'll probably knacker at least one blade per bolt, and you''ll need to grip the bolt with a mole wrench or similar to stop the blade from spinning it.

Good luck!

Nick.

[Retroanaconda]

Are the nuts fixed (welded)? And to which section?

If memory serves me on mine they were welded to the centre section. So if keeping that bit and just replacing the rear section you need to get the bolts out of the nuts so that the new ones will have something to go into. Unless you grind them off and weld new ones on.

Plenty of penetrating oil should do the trick really, as said above winding it back in a bit, cleaning the thread, applying more oil, and trying again can work quite well I have found.

Use a decent fit six-sided socket to avoid rounding the bolt heads off. Although if you give them too much grunt they will just shear instead.

Good luck

[TheBeastie]

Thanks guys

They were usual bolts. Nothing welded. Bought another pair of mole grips and tried PlusGas, left and hour then tried brute force again but either I am too much of a weakling that I couldn't shift or else they really were solid (I prefer the latter!)

Junior hacksaw was the answer. Not as bad as I feared it might be. New section now nicely in place - no difference to noise levels of course, but at least it is neater.

Hopefully will now be better prepared for replacing the middle section when it needs it - it was looking quite corroded near the end.

[mmgemini]

Machine Mart make a set of nut crackers at a reasonable price. I wouldn't be without mine.