We got lucky using an easy-out on another bolt 4 months ago. I had a
fitting shear off a fancy Bilstein shock absorber. The surrounding
material was aluminum so I was really leery of what we were doing. With
much caution we did get the remaining Aeroquip fitting to un thread.
Not sure if the location of the bolt will allow me to go this route or
not. Seems to me that you can only get one hand in the area at a time.
I'll pop the hood again later today to take another look.
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-dakota-truck@bent.twistedbits.net
[mailto:owner-dakota-truck@bent.twistedbits.net] On Behalf Of
jon@dakota-truck.net
Sent: Monday, April 23, 2007 10:29 AM
To: dakota-truck-moderator@bent.twistedbits.net
Subject: Re: DML: RE: RE: ARRRRRRRRGHH!
"Marc W. Grobe" <mgrobe@leghorncomputing.com> wrote:
> The darn bolt looks to be embedded in the block and there isn't much
> protruding out. I wonder if the freezing trick would help or not in
my
> application. I do have a right-angle drill but it is barely usable.
> Plus the amount of space between the engine bay and the block is only
> 3-4 inches.
>
> Anyone have any ideas?
You could try freezing it, though the mass of metal you are dealing
with will naturally make it less effective than on a smaller bolt. If
you have a torch, try heating it up. A few heat/cool cycles with a
liberal amount of penetrant may help to loosen things up. (Heating it
with a torch and then immediately freezing it to cause the most rapid
change possible may help.) You can try drilling it and using an
easy-out, but if the easy out breaks off in there, then you are really
up the creek. :-) (The hardened metal of the easy-out will not be
easy to drill and also makes them brittle, so the liklihood of them
breaking is actually fairly high.) If you *must* use an easy-out,
drill the largest hole possible so as to use the largest size easy-out
possible, and do *not* force things - easy outs are so brittle that
they will break if you stare at them too long... A less risky route
is to get a left hand drill bit. As you are drilling, you may find
that it bites into the bolt and starts to back it out. If not, at
least you have a hole started so that you can use progressively larger
bits to use an easy out, or get to the point where you can pick the
remainder of the bolt out of the threads, or simply drill it larger
and tap larger threads or install a heli-coil to retain the original
thread size and pitch.
Sometimes, even if there is not enough sticking out to grab with a
pliers or vise grips, you may be able to weld a bit of metal on there
to give yourself a handle. Usually not though, my experience is that
the bolts usually snap off flush or just below the surface.
A frozen, snapped-off bolt is one of the most annoying experiences
that will happen to a mechanic, and I feel your pain. :-) Good luck
with it!
--
-Jon-
.- Jon Steiger -- jon@dakota-truck.net or jon@jonsteiger.com -.
| '96 Kolb Firefly, '96 Suzuki Intruder, Miscellaneous Mopars |
`-------------------------------- http://www.jonsteiger.com --'
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