WD-45 Widefront Repair

Cheesehead Fred · May 21, 2013

The "3 bolt" style widefront has a stripped bolt that holds the crossbar that moves the tierods. The threads are stripped in the round plate under the steering gear housing, and the plate seems to be hardened. Anyone else tried to fix one of these? I'll post a photo tomorrow if my explanation isn't enough....

Allis Dave · May 22, 2013

I get what you're saying. The round plate is stripped. It should be fine thread. Really your only optioins are to drill out to the next size larger hole and tap it, or put in a helicoil.

CheeseHeadFred · May 22, 2013

I tried to drill it for a Helicoil, and the plate seems to be hardened. It looks like it"s one big piece in the manual, which would be a bear to tear down and replace.
Am I looking at this right??

Allis Dave · May 23, 2013

It is a bear to replace. The bottom round plate plate is on the end of a shaft that goes up into the gearbox and has a gear and bearing pressed on it. I changed the oil on mine a couple years ago when I repainted the tractor.

I don't want to sound redundant but maybe you'll have to head to NAPA and buy a really hard new bit to drill with. I know there's not much room to work under there. You also could check around and see if someone has a magnet drill you could borrow.
Next option would be to take the whole gearbox off and put it in a drill press.

WD-45 Widefront Repair

Cheesehead Fred

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Allis Dave

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CheeseHeadFred

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Allis Dave

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