I should have inquired here first about the funky looking bolt heads attaching the spacer to the end of my HD aftermarket driveshaft (maybe GBR?). Then I wouldn’t have wrecked the regular bolts holding the spacer to the flange. The nuts were all rounded off and not very accessible so I ended up cutting the bolts.

So the question is it possible to move the snap ring out of the way to put the new bolts in? Or is there any reason it wouldn’t be okay to feed the bolts in from the front and put the nuts behind the flange?

Next time I will just use the 12 point flange bolts I was embarrassingly ignorant about. Here’s the picture I should have posted before proceeding.

 

You want to use a 6 point for the nut that is covered, but use a really good grade cheap one round like that all the time. Use the wrench and lock the wrench in place, the torque the bolt. Slide the wrench off, and of course some anti seize.

I do not know how much space it in there but if a 12 point nuts moves getting a 12 point wrench on could be a problem

 

undo the other end of the shaft and drop it. Then rotate the D shaft/one lifted tire to expose the 12 pts as needed. Undo 12pts and get access to the 'rounded' nuts...

 

From a fastening standpoint there's no reason you couldn't reverse the bolts however the snap ring will interfere with where the nuts will need to be. The bolt head is much more shallow then the nuts. It is a standard snap ring, albeit a large one, that has the ears with the holes in them to allow removal with a pair of snap ring pliers. It may take a little effort but once it's out of the way you can fit replacement bolts in there and then replace the snap ring.

 

Thanks guys. Great advice on removing the 12 point flange bolts first but unfortunately I already cut the rear bolts and took the whole thing off with spacer intact. What should have taken 20 minutes took over 2 hours. I should have posted first. Feel pretty dumb for not knowing how to deal with a 12 point bolt head, never saw one before. It was pretty obvious after I got the shaft off. Live and learn.

I took the shaft to a local driveline guy and he checked it all out and greased it up and it’s good to go. I think I’ll try to get that snap ring out of the way to install the spacer to the flange with new bolts, and reinstall the shaft onto the spacer the easy way. Luckily I have the diff lock lever underneath to keep it on the road in the meantime.

Thanks, love the forum and the Land Rover.