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Can you get a 10 dia bar in to the back boss from the rear?
If so, you can then use a piece of scaffold tube to act as a giant lever, and you may be able to move it this way. Be careful as a 6 foot scaffold pole will allow you to exert a hefty force on the 10 dia bar and it could bend/fail, so give yourself plenty of room. You may need much more than mild steel for the bar.
One option would be to buy a socket set extension bar, (decent make) and turn it down at you night classes to the dia. and length you need.
This is a tried and tested method to straighten bent farm machinery!!
Mike
Jason, if you are going to use heat, (and i think you must) you have to use HEAT! just warming it wont make it much easier to bend.
Sorry to hear about the problem. I will take a look at mine and see if I can suggest anything useful. - John
Hi Jason,
I was just pondering along the same lines as Mike
If you don't have a scaffold pole, then get a fence post and drill a 10mm hole about 4" from the end (across the post). That'll give you some good leverage. I'd use 10mm bolts as I think socket extensions can be brittle and might suddenly snap. But I do take on board Mikes point that the bolts might just bend before the boss moves. You obviously need something strong but not brittle but I can't think of anything off hand. Maybe a length of 25mm bar with the last 20mm turned down to 10mm?
My favourite 'lever' is my scissor jack but I can't think what to lever it against?
It might be worth alerting your insurance company/assessor first to warn them you might need to get someone in to grind/drill out the old boss and weld a new one in.
I think that you just need plenty of heat on it. Steel bends pretty easily but it will need to be red hot. It won't do a lot for the powder coating though...
It one blow torch won't do it then try a second one. Heat is much better than brute force IMHO. If you want a hand or a second brain (well 1/2 a one anyway) I could probably do one evening next week. I am in Beds and you are in Northants as I recall.
Well, I've made some progress, but not in the way I thought.
I bought a bigger blow torch, and used it to heat the steel up - got it to a nice cherry red colour after burning the powder coat off. Not that it did much good, as no matter where I heated it, how long I heated it, the bloody thing wouldn't budge, even with big F-off leavers.
Two blow torches (my new big one, and my existing one with a new canister) playing on it whilst I pulled on a lever didn't make any difference either.
So I came to the conclusion that I was going to have to cut the boss off and have re-welded. So I got The angle grinder out, and managed to cut through it parallel with the turret:
having done that, there is still some boss in place - which appears to be straight... As the pin will now slide through with no problems. I can only assume that the boss bent, and the small dent in the surface of the turret that it was welded to was a bit of a red herring.
So, now all I need to do it get a piece of mild steel turned to the correct diameter, 22mm long with a 10mm hole trough the middle. Then I can slide it on the pin and get someone to weld it on for me.
The problem is Engineering class has finished for this Term, so I won't be able to do it. Soooo - can anyone turn me a bit of steel for me? I'm looking at you Patrick.
So, project back on track, good news!
Did you get a new 10mm pin or is that a bit of John's car?
Is that a steering rack extension I see in the background of the first picture?
It's the pin from Johns car, which is now mine as I bought the bits off him.
Yes, that is a steering rack extension you can see. I sent the rack off to the engineering firm Mike recommended, and they replaced the track rods with solid ones. The bent ones had been extended by marlin by cutting them in half and welding in some thin wall tube.
These have been extended using solid, screw on pieces - and is in fact 30mm longer on each side to enure a nice long portion of the thread is into the rod ends. As I mentioned earlier, it was alarming seeing just how little thread was engaged in the ends on the old rods.
The collar that Lee from the MOC turned for me arrived yesterday, so I got the mobile welder in this afternoon to stick it on to the chassis for me.
Once I'd given the it a bit of a clean up, I sprayed it up with some Eastwood extreme chassis black, and now it's touch dry you really can't tell that anything's happened to it. Result!
One the paint has dried overnight, I shall rebuild the suspension.
Huzzah! The suspension has been rebuilt, and the headlight repaired and bolted on:
I've swapped out the bushes on the rebuilt side with normal rubber ones, and have done the top wishbone on the passenger side. I would have done the lower ones as well, but I managed to butcher several bushes trying to get them in. They kept sticking half way, and no amount of lubrication would get them to shift.
In the end I swapped the eyes on the arms out for the old ones from the other side that survived the crash. I assume the existing ones must have had some rough patches or something that I couldn't see that was increasing the friction.
I've also redone the camber settings on both sides using my phone as a camber gauge (works really well, btw). Now set to -1 deg on each side whilst under load.
Not done the tracking yet, but that should be a doodle when it comes to it. No worries about the rods falling out, and the nut on the extension is a great way of turning the rod to wind the upright in for positive or negative toe.
I'd use 10mm bolts as I think socket extensions can be brittle and might suddenly snap. But I do take on board Mikes point that the bolts might just bend before the boss moves. You obviously need something strong but not brittle but I can't think of anything off hand. Maybe a length of 25mm bar with the last 20mm turned down to 10mm?
