Broken bolt trouble
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Joined: Mar 2005
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From: St. Louis
Broken bolt trouble
Hey guys I was trying to replace my thermostat the other day and one of the bolst broke off and is most of it is sticking out still. I am trying to get the rest of it out and so far heat, lubricants, and vise grips is not doing it. any help on getting that out without causing any more problems? thanks
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From: southern Indiana
Drill through the bolt and easy out it.What ever you do dont break the easy out off in it.If it feels its about to break stop and drill it out a size smaller than the bolt ,rethread the hole and find a bolt to fit.
Tim
Tim
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Do you have a welder? If there is still a good portion of the bolt sticking out you could weld a nut onto it. Once there is a nut on it you just get out your socket set and get to work. I've done this a couple of times and it works very well. A side benefit is that it heats it up and it comes out pretty easy after you weld the nut on. If this doesn't work, you will be using the "easy" out method as described above by timothy.
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I had the exact same problem on the Edelbrock intake for my 460. Same deal: water neck bolts. I tried welding a nut on three times, each time very clean. The bolts just twisted up like a seized oil pickup rod. I recommend drilling them out and retapping the holes. The aluminums easy to tap.
-kit
-kit
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From: Gatlinburg
After you get the bolt out. Go to the autoparts or hardware and get you some studs for your water outlet. It will be course thread going in and the nuts that will hold your water outlet on will be fine thread. Double nut the stud and screw them down into the intake as far as you can. Make sure to get the right length studs. Then put some antisieze on the fine threads sticking out and install your water outlet.
I did this on my Edelbrock 460 intake. You'll never have that problem again. Same deal as installing a stud kit for mounting the carburetor. Aluminum intakes especially will strip out over time if you don't use studs. On cast iron intakes, the bolts want to weld themselves to the threads.
I've had good luck in some cases using the long slim nose vise grips to get broken bolts out.
I did this on my Edelbrock 460 intake. You'll never have that problem again. Same deal as installing a stud kit for mounting the carburetor. Aluminum intakes especially will strip out over time if you don't use studs. On cast iron intakes, the bolts want to weld themselves to the threads.
I've had good luck in some cases using the long slim nose vise grips to get broken bolts out.
Last edited by 30over; Jan 8, 2006 at 07:48 AM.
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Post Fiend
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From: Spokane, WA
Originally Posted by timothy47129
Drill through the bolt and easy out it.What ever you do dont break the easy out off in it.
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From: Marengo, Iowa
I agree on the wax, heat it up like you were trying to get it out that way, drip the wax on it until it cools, then give it a shot, if it doesn't come out that way, then it will likely have to be drilled. I also agree on the studs, will save a lot of trouble in the future.
Senior User
Joined: Sep 2005
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From: Saint Paul, MN
Anti-seize should always be used when threading bolts into aluminum. Over time there is a chemical reaction between steel and aluminum. This happened to my distributor hold down bolt on my Edelbrock intake. The aluminum threads will stick to the steel bolt threads. Anti-seize will prevent this from happening.
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From: St. Louis
now what
Ok guys thanks for all the advice. I tried the wax and still no budging it. I got and easy out and put it in and then the easy out broke off inside the hole fitting. I guess i can just drill into the broke off piece and start again? I cant believe this little bolt could cause such a headache. should I just drill back into the the spot where the easy out is?
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Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 389
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From: Visalia, California
You've probably tried this already but...
Have you tapped on the top of the bold with a hammer? Sometimes the impact of the hammer will break loose the rust...just like a stuck jar in your kitchen.
Oh ya, I wouldn't pound on the bolt -- just rap on it a few times.
Jim
Oh ya, I wouldn't pound on the bolt -- just rap on it a few times.
Jim
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Joined: May 2002
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From: Gatlinburg
Man Josh, That's is a real snag. I guess my next question would be, how nice is your intake? If it's just a stocker, you could just pull it off and probably pick one up at the bone yard for cheap. At least on our dear ole Fords, you don't have to pull the distributor out to pull the intake, like on a Cheby. If it's aluminum, you could most likely take it off and have a good shop to get it out and weld it back up with a heliarc welder and tap it back out for maybe $30 or so.
I don't know, that eze out is going to be hard to drill. You'd probably nearly need a bit like is used on a milling machine. Could you take a dremmel with some type of small bit and clear out around the eze out enough till you could maybe get a hold of it with some slim nose vise grips or something to rock it back and forth to at least get it out? If you could get it out, you could just bore it on out with a bigger bit, then use a good bottom tap to tap it out to a little bigger size, even maybe a metric size bolt. I did that on a tractor manifold awhile back. Maybe someone else has a better idea. Sorry for the long post, just trying to help.
I don't know, that eze out is going to be hard to drill. You'd probably nearly need a bit like is used on a milling machine. Could you take a dremmel with some type of small bit and clear out around the eze out enough till you could maybe get a hold of it with some slim nose vise grips or something to rock it back and forth to at least get it out? If you could get it out, you could just bore it on out with a bigger bit, then use a good bottom tap to tap it out to a little bigger size, even maybe a metric size bolt. I did that on a tractor manifold awhile back. Maybe someone else has a better idea. Sorry for the long post, just trying to help.