Bofors help - Calling the Brains trust

[Godwin Hampton]

Should all else fail........

Cut the outrigger tube, 3 or 4 inches from the bronze bush! This will allow transportation immidiately, and also give access to the centre part of the pin to enable you to attack the rust. A good method is to heat the pin to red heat and immideately cool it with a hose pipe. This will make the rust flake and fall off. The outrigger bits can be tack-welded back on in situ after levelling everything, with the final welding and grinding being done in the workshop.

[colin jones]

Hi Tony, this might sound a bit difficult. You could try chaining a minimum 12tonne hyd jack to the underside of the pin. Wrap the chain around numerous times for safety. Once you put pressure on the jack you are then using the chassis for back pressure rather than having the jack on the ground and only using the weight of the gun for pressure. Once you have got a substantial amount of pressure on the jack, just leave it and let the pressure do the work. It would act like a hyd bearing puller. If you have got a 32 tonne jack an a big chain, all the better.
Good luck
Colin.

[notenoughtoys]

Tony - Maybe I'm "out in left field without a glove" on this - but maybe you'd be better off trying to chill the pins down if possible.

Heat sounds like it would be great at fracturing any type of rust bridge between the pin / bushing interface - but it will only be working in your favor if you are heating the outside bushing itself (expanding it in effect) - not the pin.

I'd try chilling down the pin itself locally with dry ice or perhaps an aerosol product (Loctite makes one I believe). It looks like you may be able to get access directly to the pin head and the tapered tip enough to make a difference (provided of course the bushing does not extend the full length of the internal cavity)........ If you were to chill down the pins you would in effect be shrinking the pin diameter thus increasing the clearance between the pin / bushing. Combine this with one of the above pneumatic methods of agitating the connection and you should be getting some movement.

I'd hate to see you have to hacksaw / reweld the stabilizers !!

Reid in Uxbridge Ontario

[Tony Smith]

Thanks for all the replies, but I ought to say that this one has been put to bed. Encouraged by Gunner's reply that there is nothing special retaining the pin, my thinking led to the same idea that Colin Jones also came up with.

I wrapped two lengths of chain around the outrigger box and hung a 3/4" steel plate on them. I then sat a 30 hydraulic Porta-Power on the plate and pressed againgst the bottom of the pin. A bit of a hooray, and up she rises! Pardon the quality of the photo, it was taken on a Mobile Phone.