Gettin broken bolts out

[Philby]

Maxx, as you have found out esy outs are a curse. A practice I use all the time is to tack weld continually to the end of the stud until you have enough material exposed to fit a suitable size nut over the stud you have created and weld the nut to it. Once the job cools down just wind out the stud. Works a treat..

[Skog07]

Just fired up AutoCad...

Couldnt find my crayon... so I had to use black pen on A4....
Good luck with it mate. Some good advice on this thread.. Plenty of penetrene WD40 and a little heat goes along way as well.
Just wanted to show that winding out old rusted and exposed thread through a sealed nut encapsulated can worsen the problem..
Cheers.
Skog

[NQ Robbo]

mmaaxx

I have had some success (and failures I might add) if there is enough of the bolt left protruding from the hole, by welding a nut of a similar size to the bolt and then just using a spanner to undo it. As mentioned earlier the heat from the weld tends to break any seizing.

Also drilling through the bolt gives some relief for and can help take the load of the seized threads; after they've been hot the can "relax" onto no resistance when they cool.

Just another option, I do like the allen key I never thought of that before.

Cheers
Robbo

[NQ Robbo]

Sorry Philby

I should read to the end of the thread before replying,

NQ Robbo

[maxw]

How did you go mmaaxx?? ive done something similar replacing my stock plate

[Hilux Max]

The one underneath is a goner....theres no way of getting it out since the easy out I was using broke inside it.

In hindsight, I should have drilled a larger hole and used a bigger sized easy out.

I have a plan to fix it thou, when I rework my bashplate.

[Bourbydol]

I removed my bash plate & under engine guard ready for Buds Customs Bash plates that are coming......

3 out of the 4 bolts for the under engine guard have sheared off! I sprayed them with WD40, tapped them with a hammer etc before & during removal! the MAIN problem is they are blind bolt holes so you can't clean the crap off the exposed thread before trying to undo it!

[Skog07]

Bourby.
A blind hole is a hole that the thread has material behind it to stop it winding in further. If there is exposed thread at the back its not a blind hole even if is inside a crossmember..
Did the head of the bolts shear off when undoing or were they sheared off by say a rock or something?

[maxw]

Haha Bourbydol im in a similar boat 2 have sheared and im not game with the other 2 just yet, have gotten some penetrene from work and mite go see the fitter for some easy outs. Bloody sucks as i have the brand new shiny plates just sitting there

[Bourbydol]

I getya Skog. They broke off when undoing, but i can get a set of vice grips onto 1, might go spray it with more wd40. the other 2 well.......might send it to a workshop that has the right tools instead of crawling around under it, will be alot easier in the long run.

[scratcha]

Another trick is if the stud/bolt is flush, is to weld a steel washer to whats left (the hole in the washer as close to the size of the bolt and the washer protects the area around the broken bolt) once you have welded the washer to the broken bit, weld a nut to the washer and unscrew, never fails me that one.

[muznbree]

If you are really stuck or you have damaged the thread you can drill the hole out and use a helicoil to replace the thread to the original size. For example; you have a M6 bolt and its snapped and you have to drill it out but damage the thread to the point where a tap wont refubish the thread appropriately, you drill the hole out to 7mm, tap it out with a M8 tap bit and the helicoil will screw in (using loctite) and your back in business

Helicoil - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Tts9hwo ... re=related

Anti-sieze always helps, costs a bit but will last you a lifetime if your a home mechanic. I cant stress enough how great that stuff is and it can save you many hours trying to extract sheared bolts like mmaaxx has.

[pebble]

You guys need to look for a set of Screw extractors made by RIGID. Very goog quality steel and instead of being helical like the Ezi out they are straight and parallel so that once tapped into the hole with a hammer you can then turn it both directions. This lets you work it back and forward which may give you more chance of getting CRC into it. make sure you drill the hole right through the bolt to help get the extractor out again.
My experience is that if a bolt snaps off trying to undo it then it is probably siezed so an ezy out may have trouble too. They are cheap and brittle and will work if the bolt will undo easily. when they break off, you have a much bigger problem.
If theres enough left sticking out to weld to then get a flat washer the size of the bolt and line it up over the bolt hole before welding. this may help to protect the surrounding metal from the weld and let you get more weld on to the easy out.theres more tricks but you do need the ezi out out. good luck.

PS. Don't forget RIGID

[Jack S]

Or some snap on left handed drill bits

[wld_64]

Drill the broken extractor out with a good quality masonry drill and start again.

[buffo69]

First thing. If you want it to come out, spend some cash on top quality tooling, you might get some out with the cheapo tools but when it comes to stubborn bolts, the higher quality tools will work and not twist and break like the cheap stuff.

[bloke&tackle]

Those left handed thread ezi-outs are a nightmare. The harder you turn them the more they jam themselves into the hole. If you have only drilled a small hole and still have plenty of meat in the broken bolt, the ezi-out will snap off and they are almost as hard as a drill so drilling the broken piece out will be impossible. If you have drilled a larger hole, the ezi-out will spread the thin remains of the broken bolt and jam it tighter.
As already said, the straight square ones are the go, Rigid aren't the only company that make them, I've got a good Snap-on set. Whenever possible always drill to the bottom of the broken bolt even in a blind hole.

[Bullzye]

Anti-sieze always helps, costs a bit but will last you a lifetime if your a home mechanic. I cant stress enough how great that stuff is and it can save you many hours trying to extract sheared bolts like mmaaxx has.

X100
Plus a little tip iv'e picked up is to use torx bits instead of extractors because you can work them forward and back

[robert.campbell5]

After snapping a bolt head of trying to undo my swaybar I tried the ezyouts I had in my toolbox. Absolute waste of time in my opinion. So I rang a Bolt Removal guy here in Brisbane. It was Saturday so he wasn't to keen to make the trip up to my house and told me I wouldn't get any change from $130. I wanted it done that day as I has just finished putting my lift kit in and wanted to try it out on Sunday.

The bolt guy told me how he would do it over the phone, so after a quick trip to Bunnings, Supercheap and Total Tools (of course the tools weren't all in theone shop), I was ready to give it a go.

First, use an angle grinder to get the shaft of the bolt as flat as possible.
Then punch the broken shaft as close as you can to the centre.
Then drill a small pilot hole all the way through the bolt.
Now drill the hole out so to 5-6mm depending on how well you centre punched it.
Now, use a die grinder and a 1/4" die to grind the broken bolt, working from the hole you have drilled to the thread. Grind as close as you dare to the thread keeping in mind once the bulk of the bolt is removed you should be able to use needle nose pliers to remove the last shards of bolt.
Use a thread file or retap the the thread to remove the last traces of steel and then give it a spray with WD-40.

If you did manage to damage the existing thread simply retap the next size larger.

I am going to remove some broken bolts today that hold my bash guard in place so I will take some pics and show how its done.

In total I spent $110 buying a die grinder, 1/4" die (good quality), and a metric tap and die set and was able to do it properly first go. So I saved myself $20 and now have those tools on hand for future bolt removal.