belly pan bolt holes stripped out..

oldirt · Apr 30, 2009

most of the 3/4" bolt threads that my back belly pan fasten to I have found are ruined. Does anyone know if I can just retap to a 20mm coarse thread bolt and have enough thread depth to torque the bolts?

Otherwise I guess I will have to scare up a 49/64 drill bit to tap it to 7/8". I don't know if you can get a step drill with a 1/2" shank which is what I would need.

Maybe there is a better way to repair this. Thanks for any help.

wrenchbender · Apr 30, 2009

Oldirt, you didn't say what kind od Dozer ya got. But on the ones we can we knock the old welded nuts off and weld in new ones. Simplist and fastest repair I know of

CatSkinner77V · Apr 30, 2009

i would borrow myself a magnet drill from someone if i was you, drilling overhead can be.... well just about impossible at times with your standard D-handle drill. You might have to weld a plate on beside each hole for a nice flat spot to put your mag-drill but its alot less work than pushing up on a hand held drill... other than that i think you answered your own question hahaha.

oldirt · Apr 30, 2009

this is on a D6D, I also thought welding ears on the frame and pan would be the fastest, but also are going to have to be reinforced well enough to keep rubble from ripping them off. Those pans can get really screwed up if you drive over them, or can screw up other stuff if they get caught underneath. Just trying to keep it together.

I also didn't notice that these are threaded blocks welded on the inner frame, it looks like threaded holes, I will have to look again tomorrow.

Thanks for your help, guys.

JonesBros · Apr 30, 2009

What we always do is just standard drill a hole straight and in the center and use a giant easy out. Might have to use a little heat to free the bolt up. Also you could try a left handed drill bit and put some constant pressure on it to see if it'll maybe back out while drilling the hole.

Cmark · May 1, 2009

My advice, for what it's worth.

Drilling and tapping big holes upside down will give you nothing but sore arms and a bad mood for the weekend! Believe me, I've tried all ways. Helicoils strip out after the pan has been removed and replaced a couple of times. Keenserts are better but will still work loose. Weld the hole up and re-drill? Forget it.

As you have the type with threaded blocks, you're in luck. Make up some new blocks, drill, tap, cut off your old ones and weld them in.

If you happen to have the type where the holes are threaded into the frame, cut out the bottom of the box section, cut a piece of plate, drill and tap it and weld it in. This technique is also good for reclaiming the bottom of track frames where the rollers bolt on.

Good luck....

oldirt · May 1, 2009

thanks for all the ideas, I am going to get after it and see what I can come up with.

oldirt · May 1, 2009

update..

I drilled and tapped these holes to 7/8". Drilling was easy, pulling the breaker bar hooked to the tap was tougher, but the worst part was squeezing my way too tall body under the thing.

This was not hard to do, took a couple hours to get it all done and bolted back up, with anti seize on the threads this time. I think the previous owner figured red river sandstone dust was good lube.

Thanks to everyone who gave their ideas, it all helped.

OCR · May 2, 2009

Belly pan bolt holes: and... way too tall body... lol

oldirt said:
but the worst part was squeezing my way too tall body under the thing.

I know exactly what you mean, and I can lift ours high enough with the blade and ripper, to sit under... still a PITA, so I went for surgery...

No, no... not my body... on some dirt with a steel implant... LOL

Now I can walk under it, if I want... plus, drive a truck or pickup on...

Basically... a poor boys shop pit...

And, I'm glad you got it fixed... :thumbsup

OCR

CatSkinner77V · May 2, 2009

OCR;157065 Basically... a poor boys shop pit... :rolleyes: OCR[/QUOTE said:
OCR, thats quite the "shop pit" you built there, I couldn't see from the pictures but are the beams running parralel attached to each other in anyway? just wondering because I would be kind of weary of the beam maybe rolling in dirt if you put a big load on it?

CatSkinner77V · May 2, 2009

never mind looked closer, see there is angle in there haha. sorry,.

jughead · May 2, 2009

one could be lucky??????????? like i was. belly pans on my komatsu are welded solid. talk about a pain in the butt to clean out.

CatSkinner77V · May 2, 2009

jughead said:
one could be lucky??????????? like i was. belly pans on my komatsu are welded solid. talk about a pain in the butt to clean out.

hahaha, that is rough. I thought i had it bad enough, bought a D8 at Richie auction without really looking at too closely.... it was going cheap and i am pretty sure i was still under the influence from the "Diamonds Gentlemans Club" in Edmonton the night before..... all the flaps for servicing the torque were had big half inch plate welded over them, talk about a pain taking the rear pan off everytime u wanted to drain the torque or check the screen..... needless to say we fabbed up a completely new pan as the old one was bent up so badly, it must have had some cowboy operating it skidding it over stumps all the time. :bash

Dualie · May 3, 2009

every time I have had to replace a tragically worn cutting edge with damaged mounting holes it was easier to plasma or torch off the mounting area and then cut, drill and tap a piece of steel to mount the cutting edge to and weld it in.

OCR · May 3, 2009

Belly pan bolt holes & poor boys "shop pit"... LOL

CatSkinner77V said:
OCR, thats quite the "shop pit" you built there

Well thanks, CatSkinner77V...

just wondering because I would be kind of weary of the beam maybe rolling in dirt if you put a big load on it?

They sure would...

Faster than turning a loaded scraper up hill... with the bowl raised... lol

never mind looked closer, see there is angle in there

Good eye... CatSkinner77V... :thumbsup

Actually, they're pieces of "I" beam, CatSkinner... I think I welded in three of
them, and the one end is completely boxed in... heavy flat, running all the
way across, welded to the ends of all 4 beams.

They're 40 feet long, and I didn't want to cut any off just yet, because I'm
still kind of in the development stage.

I put them together like they are, and used them when I changed out my UC... just laid them on flat ground, no pit.

But, I'm still scheming about some more add ons... lol

Thanks again,

OCR

OCR · May 3, 2009

Bent Up Belly Pans:

CatSkinner77V said:
needless to say we fabbed up a completely new pan as the old one was bent up so badly, it must have had some cowboy operating it skidding it over stumps all the time. :bash

Lots of fun... lol
We logged with our 750c, and I knew what would happen, so this is one of
first things I did...

https://www.heavyequipmentforums.com/Forum/showpost.php?p=89487&postcount=21

Pictures of doubled belly pans... kinda hard to see...

OCR

oldirt · May 9, 2009

great pictures! Now that looks tough.

belly pan bolt holes stripped out..

oldirt

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