I know removing a broken stud or bolt has been addressed a million times, but is there any sort of secret to removing a bolt without breaking it in the first place? I have to remove four bolts from part of my exhaust. It's a cast 90 degree elbow that bolts between the manifold and pipe. So far all I've done is soak the bolts with PB Blaster a few times. I also started to turn one of the bolts, but I think only the head was moving and I sure wasn't putting much torque on it! And here's another question while I'm thinking of it: If the heads do brake off the bolts, would a stud puller pull out the rest or would the bolt just break again. BTW, not much room to work in there, so drilling would be a pain and I'd really like to avoid pulling the whole manifold! Thanks for anything you guys could offer! Johnny
best way i've found is to heat the manifold up nice and red with a torch and then turn em out. if they break i hope you have enough sticking out to get a pair of Vise Grips on otherwise i think your stuck with drilling it out or trying an EZ-out (which i've NEVER had any luck with).
Dammit......I just bought a set of easy outs hoping they'd be one of those tools I'd never use..... The area I'll be working in is pretty tight, so I'm not even sure I can get a torch in there.....or a drill for that matter. This is gonna ****..... Johnny
If you have enough room, medium hammer blows axially can help. Often there's a lockwasher--that has usually lost all its heat treat, like the bolt, and will fall apart if attacked, slacking up the joint some. If you get just a bit of movement, flood the ****er with oil and turn back&forth for a while--breakage often happens after about the first turn as rust and bits of thread build up ahead of the bolt. 3 in 1 oil is not the best penetrant, but I find it the best in floating rust and crud out of the crevices on a fastener that is starting to move. If you can't move a broken off fastener with vise grips or tapping with a punch, don't even THINK about using an easy out... If you are able to drill for the easy out, in fact, throw the EO away and keep drilling--often once about half the bolt is dug out by the drill, the remainder becomes much easier to remove.
I have had good luck using left handed drill bits in a situation like this. A lot of times, the bolt will start backing out with the drill as you are drilling. Good luck!
Once you get those bolts out replace them with studs and use br*** nuts. Makes it much easier if you ever have to take it apart again.
If you can drill thru, as in completely through! then I've had luck using a cutting torch, by preheating the remaining "bolt" and blowing it out, leaving clean cast thread, as long as you are careful! Access to it sounds tough in this case.
you might just have to bite the bullet and pull them out of the car to get to them. it'll be less headache than trying to do it in the car by the sounds of it.
Easy outs are super hard too. I've tried them a million times too & have never had them work. But, I've had half of them tries end up with the easy out breaking off which still leaves you with the drilling out option only, but the easy outs are too hard to drill & makes the problem much worse than to just drill the bolt out to begin with. Carl Hagan.
EZ outs belong in the dumpster, they serve no purposse except to allow your machine shop to charge you more for the extremely high dollar drill bits they break while trying to remove the offending piece of hardened steel.
Do a search for a post SAMIYAM did about a neat tool he rigged up using a air hammer/rivet gun. The vibration of the gun loosened the fastener, as you turned by hand.
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