HELP!......stupid broken bolt

[tito]

Trying to change out the thermostat and the stupid bolt to the radiator hose bib to the manifold wrung off. The first one was a little stubborn, but using constant pressure if finally gave and came out. The second one was stubborn too but it decided to break. What's the best way to get the old piece of bolt out? Otherwise, I won't be able to tighten the hose bib back to the manifold.

Any ideas are appreciated.

[mountaincrusher]

easiest thing to do is drill a hole into the center of the bolt, then use an easy-out to back screw out, you may need to heat the area up some first, but be carefull, get it too hot and youll strip the threads out

[Rande]

Careful with that easy-out. If it breaks you'll be hatin' life 'cuz you will have a devil of a time trying to drill that thing out. Use plenty of penetrating oil, use heat, and be careful. Another method is to drill the bolt all the way out and rethread the hole if you mess up the threads. If the threads get drilled and there's not enough left to rethread, you will need to drill the hole out to the next larger size and rethread the manifold and drill the thermostat housing hole out to accomodate the larger new bolt.

"We can do anything...the impossible just takes longer" The electrician's motto. smile.gif

[ January 11, 2003, 05:09 PM: Message edited by: Rande ]

[greasyjeep]

If you can get them on there - really tight vice grips after you heat up the bolt.

All depends on where the break is.

[godzilla]

I know I'm a little late on this but here goes. Is the manifold aluminum? If yes weld a nut to the left over broken bolt, let it cool to the touch, then back it out. drilling and heating should be done the same way...then use the easy out or you'll twist the easy out in half if you try it hot. Try my first method. If the bolt was 5/16ths use a 3/8ths not.

[froggin]

If your going to try to use an easy out, first find a good hardware store that sells "left handed" drill bits. Using your drill in reverse to drill your hole for the easy out. MANY times the drill bit will grab the broken bolt and bring it on out. If not your left with the hole to use the easy out.

[reddog]

Soak it in PBlaster nomatter what you try.

Kerry

[tito]

Update:

Thanks for all the ideas. Penatrating oil was applied before starting. The vise grips didn't have enough space to turn and the manifold is the stock cast iron. I don't have welding equipment or experience so it seemed the easy-out method was appropriate.

Started with a size that seemed good, no luck. Drilled it out more and used the next size, no luck. Drilled it a third time for the next size, still no luck. Applied the torch to it before each attempt. Figured the easy-out method was not going to work when they started twisting and the tops rounding off. Thanks for the word of caution, Rande.

The third easy-out attempt resulted in a hole in the bolt so big it looks like nothing but threads left in the hole. But the stupid thing still won't come out. I even tried using a punch to peel it out since the bolt is so thin. No luck.

So, I called in the professionals. A friend that runs a machine shop is coming by this evening with a tap and die set. We're going to drill it out and rethread.

Surprise - After talking to him on the phone, I went to see what size tap/die he'd need to bring and found the bolt hole on the side that didn't break is bigger than the one that did. A PO had the same problem and had to rethread.

Word of Caution - Loosen both bolts before taking either out. I noticed the housing/spout hole on the side that did break has threads. Assuming this is original, no wonder the bolt broke. I was trying to back the bolt out of two differnt sets of threads at the same time. The spout moved a little under the pressure, so that would have caused the two different threads to misalign, causing the bolt to shear off.

I hate learning lessons this way.

Thanks again for the replies.



it after it was on. Tried the easy-out method since I don't have welding equipment or experience.

[chrisnsarah]

Now when you put this all back together, use grade 5 or better bolts with some antiseize on the threads. Went through this same headache on my jeepster. Turns out a PO used a replacement soft bolt and it broke off using a 1/4 drive rachet. Worse part was it extended into the water jacket. That's what froze the bolt I'm guessing. Had to helicoil it.