Drawbar bracket welded to left final

[tractorpoor]

Hey guys any thoughts on best way to break the weld and remove the bracket? Assuming successful removal can a helicoil be done without removing the final?

1358A2B7-B4F7-4491-A73C-9F110A76FC31.jpeg (31.17 KiB) Viewed 484 times

[Mht]

If it were mine I would find a used final drive and replace that one. Even if you get that bracket off there will probably be enough weld around the bolt hole that drilling and tapping for a helicoil will be almost impossible. I think that to get the bracket off you are going to have to be pretty good with a torch

[Glen]

Hi,
If you buy another final drive, remember that there are 2 different housings through the years for the older, or newer brakes.
The holes in the housings for the brake linkages are different sizes.
IH changed to the newer brakes at serial number 173601, which was during 1953.
Below are pics from TM Tractor of the 2 housings.

http://www.tmtractor.com/tm-tractor/gfi ... vecomp.htm

[inairam]

I really hate poor decisions by the PO. I had a PO drill dozens of rivet holes to attach a front grill on a 57.

[Nelson 634]

Why not use a cut off wheel on a 4.5" grinder. See what you got? Make a decision then. Maybe salvage draw bar bracket. You can still look for replacement final. May take several cut off wheels. They are cheap. Harbor Freight. Good Luck Walter

[welderrx]

I would try and cut it off with an angle grinder but I would do it by cutting through the weld into the bracket instead of into the final. If it were mine I would use the mag drill with an annular cutter cut the head off the bolt and get as close as I could size wise with a cutter to the weld and take a slug out of the bracket without touching the weld. Or if it's holding you could just run it the way it is. TJ

[radioguy41]

Seems to me the only reason to weld the bracket to the final in the first place would be because the holes in the final are buggered badly. You can spend a lot of time cutting and/or grinding to get it off and if it's possible to repair you can maybe put in helicoils but it still may never be completely right or trustworthy. If it were me I'd opt for a replacement final. As my dad used to say, "Anything worth doing is worth doing right.".

[Stanton]

The old proverb: Time is money.

If you have little money and lots of time, then trying to cut it off and helicoiling would seem a possibility. But I think you're going to spend more time (=money) than it would cost to get a replacement final. In a couple hours, you could make the switch to a replacement final and be done with it. It's going to take you longer than a couple hours to get that thing off and helicoil it.

Not to mention the frustration factor that can come into play...

[SONNY]

Angle grinder and a couple extra disks, a lot of time, and you can clean it up and re-drill or whatever you want to do. I would square it up and drill out to next bigger bolt as a last resort. ---- cheeeeper that trying to find another final casting.

[Jim Becker]

I notice the bracket also has the remains of a bead of weld down where the drawbar attaches. I am being generous using the word "weld". None of it looks like the "welder" knew what he was doing. I wouldn't be surprised if the bracket could be removed with a couple swings of a BFH.

I think the decision of what to do depends on what the rest of the tractor looks like. I see 2 options.
1) If there are no similar "repairs" on the rest of the tractor, replace the final drive with a good used one.
2) If there is other similar patchwork on the tractor, don't do anything with it. Use the tractor as-is until when/if something major breaks. Then use it for parts.

[Glen]

Hi,
If you want to replace the final drive, JP Tractor Salvage, at the bottom of the page might have a used one.
You can't check the oil level, or put oil in the oil hole with the bracket welded on.