I had to pull the front drive shaft out of the truck and had to cut one of the bolts that attach the driveshaft to the t-case flange. Not to mention I would like to replace the others with new and noticed they are too long to pull out.

They do not clear the snap ring / t-case to allow the bolt to be pushed through the hole on the flange. (they are fed from the rear side)

Should I just cut them off and put the nuts on the bolts facing the other direction? or Is there a trick to this that i'm missing? What is the easiest way to get these bolts out?

Ignore the anotations for the CDL. - This pic is from another thread.

 

actually you should remove the flange to replace the bolts
(not a long job)
cutting them off and fitting facing other direction is the only option
if dont feel removing the flange

 

What year is your rover? Mine had notches in the housing behind the flange that when rotated, the bolts could be removed. I didn't remove them but thought that it was a nice idea because it would have near impossible otherwise.

 

Truck is a 2001. I can rotate the snap ring in such a way that allows the bolt to pass by, but the bolt is too long to clear the t-case housing. I think i'm going to cut them off w/ a cut off wheel and replace with gade 8 bolts fed from the other direction. I don't want to mess with the pulling the flange.

 

It is really easy to take the flange off. Took me 2 minutes with a 30MM socket. My flange wiggled off just using my hands and it just might save you some headaches.

 

I actually got pissed while changing the U joints on my 04 and sawzalled them off.....don't do that. Just remove the flange like everyone says. Spray the bolt holding in on with some PB Blaster and let it sit overnight. Mine was tight enough to give me a hernia!

 

ok, tried to loosen the 30MM bolt and wanted to make sure that I don't break something internally in the t-case or tranny. I noticed the RAV manual shows to use tool # LRT-51-003 to restrain the flange. I don't have this tool and wanted to know what others are doing, do you guys just put it in park and lock the trans in place then break the nut free?

I believe the bolt is torqued to 109 ftlbs so it will take some yanking on.

 

Why do you need to replace them? Are the threads stripped? If not, just get new grade 5 nylocks and leave the bolts alone.
If they aren't stripped or really corroded they will be fine.

 

Only one of the 4 needs to be replaced. The threads were damaged when I had to cut off the stripped nut. (see 1st post in the thread) I am thinking about only cutting the one with the damaged threads and feeding it from the other direction.

Does anyone know the size / thread off the nylocks?

 

I found in another thread: steel grade 5 for 3/8" bolts w/ 24TPI

Can't confirm if that is correct because I haven't had the time to work on the Disco, but I did buy them already.