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Well, I was working on my door so it will open and close easier and I ended up breaking one of the hinge bolts.
I ran to Lowes and got an extractor tool, well that did nothing. Does anyone have any tips? I don't weld so I can't weld something to it.
I'm thinking I need to remove the door and it will probably give me a little something to bite on.
In my travels, I have found, even in the dry west, that rust builds up on the exposed tip of the bolt on the inside of the door, on the other side of the nut plate, and the bolt effectively gets fat enough with build up in the threads so that even if you get the bolt loose at first, after a couple of turns the bolt seizes up and you'll twist the head off. You may not need to remove the door if you can get to and remove the nut plate, take the bolts out from the back side, chase the threads or make a new nut plate, and reinstall. Hope this makes sense, and helps.
I’d drill it out and retap it. Start with a smaller drill, no smaller than an 1/8” and cut oil. Good slow and keep it straight. Work up to 1/4”. I’m assuming that a 5/16” bolt. Tap with the proper tap, again with a lot of cutting oil.
i hate the extractors. They can break off and cause a huge problem.
I didn’t think about being able to get to the back side of the bolt. I will pull the door panel and take a look. That might be an easy fix if I have access.
It sounds like good news, the bolt threads are not seized. You may be able to drill it with a left handed drill bit and back the remainder of the bolt out.
As others mentioned, access to the back of the bolt will be very useful.
From my experience at a machine shop I would say that because it is an open hole as opposed to a blind hole you don't want or need to use an extractor or left hand bit. As Bob said use regular bits sneaking up on the diameter of the tap size for that size bolt. The heat and rotation from a regular bit will more than likely spin the broken bolt (now a stud) through the plate and you will be good to go. Chase the threads and put in a new bolt. Worse case scenario is you actually need to re-tap the hole but even that will push out any remaining stud.
Good luck.
I have in the past replaced the threaded floating plate to correct these issues. These bolts are available new so you may want to consider replacing yours as you complete your repairs.
I got a chance to take a quick look last night. I can get to the bolts from the inside and tried vice grips and that didn't work.
I wonder if I can get a nut on there and pull it out that way. I will give that a shot before drilling it out. Then I will replace all of them with new.
The broken one is back bottom.
If you had already loosened it and it broke when tightening it is broke because of metal failure not thread lock . All of the bolt still in the threads should be free . trying to back it out will be forcing the open corroded threads on the far end through the good threads , turning it in will be good threads and should be relatively easy . I would start with a small " right hand " drill bit 1/8 or so then go to a very sharp bit twice it's size and drill as slow as possible " a new sharp bit will want to grab and should turn it through . JMHO .
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