M11, 7/16, M12 what would you do?

[BobInOK]

Discovered someone in it's past went gorilla on the bolts that hold the mid mount mower on my B7100. 3 bolts on each side for the front brackets to tractor frame. Most are now stripped 10mm welded nuts on the inside of a box. Near impossible to get to the back side to weld new nuts on. Did that with one of the hood bolts but it was easy to get to.

First thought is to just tap the holes out to 11mm, have the tap but discovered 11mm bolts were either made out of gold or unobtainum. 7/16 is fairly common and really close to the same size as 11mm. But then I would be committing a sacrilege against the Kubota gods.

Next option is to go to 12mm which would probably require also drilling out the holes in the brackets to clear larger bolts.

What would you do?

 

[Jim L.]

Would a heli-coil work in your situation?

 

[SDT]

Would a heli-coil work in your situation?

Heli-coil would almost certainly require an expensive, odd-sized drill.

SDT

 

[BobInOK]

Heli-coil would almost certainly require an expensive, odd-sized drill.

SDT

Probably and I already have everything needed to make them any of the above sizes.

 

[Russell King]

Helicoil kits are sold with the correct drill bit and tap and then several coils.

I have no idea if the are expensive or cheap.

But go to the 12 if what you’re drilling into has enough material to drill through and leave a nice wall thickness


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[BobInOK]

Decided to go with 12mm, plenty of meat left in the nuts to drill and re-thread. Already drilled the nuts out just wanting to run by a local tractor supply to see what they stock in 12mm bolts. Have taps for both 1.5 and 1.75 pitch but not sure which is commonly stocked. Hoping they have 1.5... Pulled the brackets off so I can use my drill press to open up the mounting holes.

Spending allot of time fixing stuff that was the result of shoddy workmanship and neglect by previous owners or mechanics.

Thanks for taking the time to respond, helped me make the decision.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Didn't know TSC stocked Metric fasteners. I'll have to look next time. I know Fastenal does, where I get mine.

 

[BobInOK]

We have a local company like TSC, "Atwoods" who I was referring to, should have said Farm Supply. TSC opened a store right down the street from Attwoods in Broken Arrow which makes it convenient to visit both.

Sorry for the confusion, never looked in TSC for metric so not sure. Attwoods sells bolts and nuts including metric by weight believe TSC does the same but never bought any from TSC.

PS: Just got back from a visit to TSC, no metric bolts I could find.