What's new
CK5
Register an account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members.

best way to remove bolt w/snapped head

Low87

Low87

Registered Member
Joined
May 19, 2011
Posts
87
Reaction score
0
Location
Broken Arrow, OK
Been trying to get my thermostat housing off for over a month now. Bolts won't budge. Every few days I'll hit them with break-free.

Yesterday while waiting on a tool for the gas tank job, I went to work on the housing bolts again. Finally felt some give on the left bolt, and put weight into it. Snapped the head clean off. Still nothing on the right bolt.

If I get get the right bolt out, I can slide the housing over the left and try vice grips. Same if the right bolt head snaps.

Tips on the frozen right bolt? Tips for extracting the left one? I was looking at the Grabit bolt extractors, pretty mixed reviews (love it or hate it).
 
I like heat. If it's rusted/corroded in, then heat it up and then let it cool. When the bolt expands it will crush the corrosion a little. Once it cools back down, it will have made a little room for itself to move.

If it's metal-to-metal frozen from heat cycles or whatever, Heat the metal around the bolt and try to pull it hot. Welding another bolt to a broken stud helps prior to doing this.
 
I work on all of the drain machines at work. Its 100' of cable that literally gets shoved down a $hit pipe and gets full of nasty and comes back into the machine coiled up all nasty and they rust like a mother. The cable comes in 50' sections with one lead in the drum and attachments go on the end. So three screws go on one cable. The guys constantly bring them back to me cuz the bolt won't turn Etc etc...

I hear the sob with a torch, red hot, instantly grab the wrench and turn the thing out. Not once has it ever failed me.
 
I've got a propane torch I can try. I was hesitant to do that since it's right by the TBI. Pulled the TBI to clear the breaker bar. Hopefully capping everything off will suffice?

Can't weld, neither can my buddy. Need to put an ad for a welder friend on CL.

I'll give it a shot Fri night when I'm back at the shop.

Thanks
 
Is the intake housing aluminum or steel?

A propane torch shouldn't be too hot to harm an aluminum one, but at the same time won't get as hot as a mapp torch or oxy/acetylene torch..
 
Heat is a great tool as other have said, I have had great luck with snap-on stud removers when you have enough room to get the tool on the broken bolt.
 
Another cheap trick you can do with a propane torch if the head is already snapped off. Heat it up pretty good and then rub a birthday candle around the threads. It will liquify and run into the threads and lube it up. This is not a guarantee, but it has worked for me before. Warning, though. If it doesn't work, you've just sealed off your threads with wax, so no other penetrant will work.

Also, 50/50 mix of ATF and acetone is as good of a penetrant as you can get. Someone recently posted about its benefits. I've been using it for years and can vouch for it.
 
It's a stock steel manifold.

I've put quite a bit of penetrating oil on there over the past few weeks. Might be a bad combo with the propane torch.

That Snap On bit is more than I need to spend on this. I could replace the manifold for that!

Thanks for the tip rebel.
 
Low87 said:
I've put quite a bit of penetrating oil on there over the past few weeks. Might be a bad combo with the propane torch.
Click to expand...

Doubt it. Just keep some form of extinguisher nearby if your that worried.
 
Low87 said:
It's a stock steel manifold.

I've put quite a bit of penetrating oil on there over the past few weeks. Might be a bad combo with the propane torch.

That Snap On bit is more than I need to spend on this. I could replace the manifold for that!

Thanks for the tip rebel.
Click to expand...


The snap on stud remover if you buy individually is like $10, the 6 piece kit that I bought was 55.
 
On the one that still has a head, try tightening it a little bit too. Sometimes going back and forth a few times will loosen it up.

Likewise, the heat or welding a new nut to the top of the broken one has always worked for me.
 
If the other bolt breaks you can just pull the housing off and then use heat and vise grips to pull the bolts like a stud in the intake.
 
They make a lubricant/freezing solution in a can. Used that on a steel bolt frozen in an aluminum fitting, came out pretty easily. Available at auto parts stores.

Edit: Let me clarify, I may have made it sound like the freeze and release stuff wasn't necessary. This was a steel plug that required an allen wrench to remove, installed in a 1974 boat fuel tank, and it had been in there since it was made. Rounded off the wrench portion trying to remove the plug, "froze" the plug with the loctite stuff, and turned it right out.

The good thing with the aluminum is that you can ruin the threads and still run something like a thread-sert which will not require removing the intake, and prevent this problem in the future.
 
Last edited:
Time to by an Hfreight 100 flux core welder and buzz a nut on that mofo. I bet wrapping the intact bolt with a hammer will free up the threads and let it come out.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest Posts

Top Bottom