Dealing with rust and old parts can at times almost be turned into an artform. It takes no particular skill to deal with rust, but it does take patience. It takes years for rust to form a bond so tightly between two pieces of ferrous material that they almost 'bond' into one. Kinda like an old married couple that seems to be 'joined at the hip'... common sense tells you as the antagonist in the story of "The Rusty Bond" that its going to be a difficult battle to separate them. Moisture is the beg contributor to their bonding story and heat is the big detractor. Add to that heat a method to lubricate and you can easily win the battle....most of the time. There will be failures, but they will be minimal providing the above mentioned virtue sits well within your ability to benefit. Losing patience at the critical moment will not only cost you the battle of the rusty bond, it will deal you another hand that will be much more difficult to play. Losing patience will leave you with a sheared off bolt or stud at the surface or heaven forbid below the surface. THAT, my friends is by far more difficult to deal with than figuring out beforehand how to properly destroy the hold that the rust has on the two components. This is just one of the techniques that works wonders.
Enter the candle....birthday candle, votive candle, decorative candle....it doesn't matter...well it might matter a little because I don't know if 'bikini wax' will work for sure. I even have the remnants of an old Catholic baptismal candle that's two inches in diameter. It has been serving me for two decades....but I digress. Not the story here..... Back to the candle making the grand entrance to the party. Well, it just can't be a lone candle, there has to be a source of heat and as you will note in the video the preferred source of heat is the oxygen/acetylene torch. The cast iron of the tractor housing has entirely different qualities when subjected to heat as compared to the grade 5 or grade 8 bolts that attach to it. The bolts, no matter the hardness will almost always attract a lot more heat proportionally than the cast. The bolts get hotter quicker and release the heat quicker than the mass of the cast. As the two metals heat and cool at different rates, the rust that hasn't been literally burnt off by the heating process begins to loosen its grip on the individual components. At that critical time, the interjection of the candle wax becomes the lubricant. It will on occasion burst into flame, so wait for a minute for it to cool, then reapply. Oil and other spray products work as well, but seem to ignite quicker and burn themselves off the surface before they get the opportunity to penetrate to the bottom of the threads. THAT's the benefit to the wax. It penetrates pretty much thoroughly down the full length of the threads, depending on the depth of the heat transfer.
Remember the most important ingredient in the recipe for destroying the tight bond the rust has on the components is....is....PATIENCE !! Heating the bolt to a color of red or orange removes a good percentage of the hardness, so it can be snapped off with relative ease. Gently but firmly apply force both directions while hot, but back to the color of steel....if no movement, reapply the heat and wax then repeat. As the bolt or nut begins to move, (IF it begins to move), a good practice is to now add a bit of oil or a spray product to gain lubrication to the recalcitrant bolt, stud or nut.
As with all the videos from my cluttered shop, do not do the things I do...but if you do, always do the activities with safety in mind.