Broken bolt trouble

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Jan 10, 2006 | 11:41 PM

#16

T.R.Bauer

Senior User

Joined: Oct 2005

Posts: 484

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Bummer! What happened to you is one of the reasons why I am not a huge fan of easy outs. They are made of hard steel and hard steel has a tendency to NOT flex very much. Also, for some reason people in here don't bring this one up very much, but when you put an easyout inside the bolt you just drilled into, the bolt expands because of the force the easyout is putting on the inside of the bolt. This causes the bolt and ultimately the threads to expand and get somewhat tighter and you really don't want this in a bolt that is already stuck. Also, sometimes easyouts just suddenly break and seemingly without much pressure on them. You probably didn't do anything wrong so don't be too hard on yourself. If you still have a good deal of bolt sticking out, you can still try welding a nut on it. This does work a lot of the time. Otherwise you can drill in the hardened steel of an easyout, but it is going to take a top of the line steel bit and some time. I would drill the whole bolt out if I were in your shoes and helicoil it, or punch it out to a larger size and tap it. Helicoil works very well if done properly. Good luck to you.

Jan 11, 2006 | 12:35 AM

#17

Torque1st

Posting Legend

Joined: Sep 2001

Posts: 30,255

Likes: 37

The hot wax trick is called the Candle Trick, an explanation can be found in the Garage forum FAQ thread. Steel in aluminum ALWAYS corrodes, even with anti-seize. Once you get the steel bolt out replace it with stainless steel AND use anti-seize designed for stainless steel. You can also find information on removing broken taps and easy outs in the garage forum.

Jan 11, 2006 | 08:00 PM

#18

tomcasino

Senior User

Joined: Sep 2005

Posts: 359

Likes: 1

From: Saint Paul, MN

If you have to buy an expensive drill bit, try to get one that's left hand. That way while drilling, if the bit catches, sometimes the bolt will spin right out. Just a suggestion. The easy out set that I bought, have left hand drill bits.