Stuck nut....any ideas before I resort to cutting it?

[Gas Giant]

Today I decided to disassemble my spare lower unit - it became my spare when I accidentally took out the pivot pin. So I decided that I would take it apart to fix the pivot pin, and while I had it apart I'd throw in a new seal kit and a new water pump impeller.

All was actually going well, until this problem arose. The book says to remove the nut, and to separate the housings. Well, I did manage to separate the housings, but the nut in question didn't come off - it took the threaded rod it was attached to with it, and its in the way of me removing the rest of the guts. There are hard-to-see red arrows indicating the threaded rod and the nut.

Looks to me like the nut was supposed to come off, and the threaded rod was supposed to come out with the upper housing. Well, that isn't what happened. I tried putting two nuts on the threaded rod tight against each other, and then using two wrenches - one on the bottom nut of the two I tightened, and one on the stuck nut, but it didn't help - the stuck nut just turned the threaded rod anyway.

Looking for ideas to remove this thing, since I need it to come out of the way. Non-destructive methods are appreciated, but I doubt I am going to remove this thing without destroying it. I was thinking of welding a nut to the threaded part and trying to loosen the stuck nut that way, but I don't know if my Miller 110V is going to make a strong enough weld since apparently they used the world's strongest locking nut when they put this together.

Other than that, I guess I just try to cut it out?

 

[Frank Acampora]

Re: Stuck nut....any ideas before I resort to cutting it?

I would at least try welding a nut on first: If you try to cut off the nut itself, you run a good risk of damaging the O ring seal area on the gearcase. If you have a Dremel, a small carbide bit or a diamond tipped one may be the thing for cutting the nut accurately.

 

[Robert D]

Re: Stuck nut....any ideas before I resort to cutting it?

I'd just one of those nut breaker tools. Easy to do with no damage. Might have to put a helicoil in the mid section and a new stud...shouldn't be a problem.

 

[BuzzStPoint]

Re: Stuck nut....any ideas before I resort to cutting it?

Screw a nut to the top and weld it on.. Your 110v should be ample enough to do the job. Where not looking for a long life weld here. Just enough to take the other nut off.

 

[Gas Giant]

Re: Stuck nut....any ideas before I resort to cutting it?

Well, my welder was going to take too long to get out of its hiding spot and I was out of patience, so here is what I did instead:

Put a nut on, drilled through it, and wedged a nail through the hole to hold it still. It worked fine, and since I am tearing the whole assembly down anyway, I can make sure that no filings are left inside the unit.

For future reference, if anyone finds this.

 

[BuzzStPoint]

Re: Stuck nut....any ideas before I resort to cutting it?

Genius...

I would have never thought of that.... Gonna have to put that in my bag of tricks...