broken bolts part 2

[dostep]

I should have said the bolts broke where the axel housing and cv joint housing attach. they are about 2 inches inside. can they be drilled or are they too hard. I need a front axel diagram

 

[Texasmark]

Just a general comment. Was looking at strength of materials a couple of days ago and cast iron is significantly softer than steel, especially tempered like the Grade 5 bolts that are probably used in the application. I have drilled them out before and used an easy out to get the threads but you have to be extremely careful to stay centered and keep your drill in the bolt material.

When finished, if you messed up the threads then drill and tap it for a helical coil insert which will put the hole back to existing thread dimensions.

I know this doesn't help you now, but I have found an impact tool indispensable in getting old bolts/nuts to back off, along with a lot of quality penetrating oil. Actually I have never broken one off, nor stripped a nut since doing the above.

Edit: In reading below I just realized that this is a metric tractor so the bolts would have some metric temper number, not 3ea 120 degree spaced slash marks indicating a grade 5. Sorry.

HTH,
Mark