Bolts and Nuts

[GordoSD]

A while back there was a post re wheel bolts for an M. Someone mentioned the 'correct police' and using original square head bolts. I am curious. A poll of sorts.
If you were buying a ground up restoration Farmall, would you prefer old, overstressed. corroded 'correct' bolts, or brand new stainless, or cad plated grade 8 fasteners everywhere possible.
My personal opinion is that I am not going to put a tractor back together with 60 year old, rusted through bolts. I do realize it's possible to order new manufactured grade 3 and 5 unplated dot head bolts. But for the same money I'm inclined to make the tractor BETTER than it was made originally.

Gordo

 

[Anonymous-0]

SS and neversieze.I work in alot of different papermills so getting ss bolts and screws is easy Later Hoss

 

[Wardner]

Where do you get your new dot heads?

 

[Andrew Z]

There are some bolts that are nice to have real dot bolts or the IH bolts. But the way i look at it when it comes to the hitch, wheels or other "stressed" areas i want to make sure its as strong as possible soo the new greade 8 zinc plated are going on! Saftey is paramount they way i look at it.

Andrew

 

[Anonymous-0]

The tractor aint going to be in any stress uses so why do i need new bolts. My oldest tractor that i have owned has a loader and gets used pretty regular and for the last25yrs has served just fine and never seen any bolts brake. Its a 46

 

[SuperA-Tx]

I replaced all the bolts on the wheels as well as the ones holding the weights. I got some from OEM Tractor and some from Fastenal. I had to make some of them have the dot head which I used J B Weld to do.

One other thing I ran into is that all the nuts on the rear wheel bolts were heavy duty nuts. I didnt even know there was heavy duty nuts until then. Fastenal had them in stock.

Washers are also important to replace. After a washer is used one time I heard it looses 30% of its springability.

 

[Red Mist]

Gordo: Don't forget - grade 8 bolts are not always the best in every type application. In some cases bolts need to be a little softer so they can flex; grade 8 bolts are strong, but hard, and can break if continually put in an environment where flexing or a little "stretch" is required.

 

[Paul G. in Mn]

as I go through the tractor I inspect each bolt I use. If it is bad I replace and haveing a lathe I just turn my own heads to match the dot head. All lock washers get replaced no matter what they look like. Paul

 

[Bob Kerr]

Has anyone else had problems with removing plated bolts that have been in place a long time? I got to the point where if I do replace one and it is plated, I dip it in phosphoric acid to remove the plating and after cleaning it up, dipping it in steam cylinder oil(lard oil) before replacing it. I think the plating helps creat galvanic action and gets them really stuck. When I rebuilt my very rusty 10-20 I noticed a lot of the bolts unscrewed and the threads were great, even the ones in the radiator! I only twisted off a couple bolts on the whole tractor and they were on the manifold! I found out they used lard oil to cut threads back then. Steam oil contains lard oil and it is water compatable so if the tractor sits outside the bolts won"t rust up in the holes. Next time you are at a show where there is a steamer, talk to the guy, he may give you a quart of steam cyl oil, great stuff! Power plants use it also in the steam turbins.

 

[Janicholson]

Happy New Year Gordo,
Restoration is not the same as making it better.
If more function is needed, and the tractor will be used, Use the strongest and anti-seize as needed. If restored and intended for top dollar I would use the reproduced original bolts and be happy that IH used pretty good bolts to begin with. Wrong over dresses show tractors (unless intended to be hot rodded) are less desirable. JimN

 

[riverbend]

If I should ever lose my mind and buy a 100 point, ground up restoration Farmall, I would insist on NOS dot head bolts. Otherwise I usually go with grade 5 or 8 and a little dab of neversieze. I'm a little skeptical of stainless bolts myself. Isn't the good stuff to hard to make nice threads ?

Greg

 

[John S-B]

I posted about the wheel bolts, and some day hope to have my tractor restored to a "very nice looking" condition. It won't be 100% original because of wear and tear. I asked about the grade because I have a Fastenall dealer close by so it's convienient for me. And I consider those bolts to be critical for safety so I'd rather have them be in good condition than "correct". Having said that, as for the round dots on the original IH bolts, I would just solder on some dots to the heads of bolts for an authentic look if I wanted it to look original. Those dots are just a id mark and don't contributed to the strength or anything, but it would satisfy the rivet counters.