broken off bolts…

[ld50]

Ok so the KR into syncro is progressing nicely – so nicely in fact that I started cleaning up the somewhat scraggy KR. Ultimately this led me to try and remove the coolant flange from the front of the head.

Given they’re always tricky I wd40’d them plenty but actually both the lower bolts broke off, which is a right arse to say the very least.

there’s a few mm of bolt still prodruding so I’m considering what my best option is…

I’m thinking to place a nut around the stub of bolt and then mig weld the stub to the nut (and ultimately fill the hole with weld).

Alternatively grind it flat and re-drill… but whether that’ll end in tears or not I also don’t know.

If I try the welding approach and it fails I might be left with hard-as-nails weld to drill through rather than just old steel so I’m wondering if grind flat and re-drill might be a better plan overall.

Has anyone got any better ideas? I’ve tried heating with blowtorch too with no real progress.

[no such user]

Weld nuts to the remains and then turn out. Might take a few tries, but *should* work.

Alternatively, flat off the remains, centre-pop the CENTRE of the remains and then drill out the remains of the stud. Start smaller than you want to get to and then move up in drill size.

You *should* be able to get it to the point where there’s only a very thin remaining quantity of stud. It might well be possible to collapse this in on itself, or even just tap round to wind it out.

How hard can it be, eh? []

[ld50]

hmm I’m thinking maybe go straight for the drill method. I had thought both the bolts had showed signs of turning but realistically that must have been the heads twisting off.

I don’t think it’s just my imagination – welds are generally harder/brittle than the orginal steel aren’t they? In which case if the weld approach does fail, I’d find myself in a scenario involving a river of excrement, a native indian water vessel and no means of propulsion….

[no such user]

the weld method often works, the hear from welding can actualy free the remains of bolt up itself.

drilling steel bolts out ali is never fun

[no such user]

If there’s material you can get on, set the welder RIGHT up on high power, with a comparatively low wire speed and get some heat into the bolt remains as you gob the nut on there. As Danny says – the heat from the welding will help a lot in releasing the bolt.

I don’t think the drilling method is particularly better – if you slip, or go off centre you can get into a world of pain pretty damned quickly.

[ld50]

ok that’s useful feedback …. I’ll try the weld first. I suppose that’s some pretty convincing heat for a bolt in any case so if anything’s going to break it free that will

cheers guys, I’ll post progress… I’m hoping this will only delay me by a weekend…

[ld50]

Welding worked perfectly on one – I did like you said with the slow wire feed and it worked perfectly.

The other one the weld didn’t take properly so came off, tried again and it stuck but the bolt broke off again clean at the surface so i guess we’re drilling but also not into weld since it broke off again…. if I can get both sorted today I’m nearly back on schedule cheers!

[ld50]

w00t – 2 for 2 … the drilling was *textbook*. I’ve never really had enormous success with that method but today it worked perfectly. eventaully the force of the drilling got the remaining bits of thread to move and after that I could gradually collapse and remove the remaining bits. The original thread in the aluminium is still though intact – winner!

That means I can get on with rustproofing the engine bay with a view to getting the motor in and only lost a day to the bolts. Cheers all round

[Chris S]

[] []

[ld50]

ok so *more* broken off bolts…(well one).

I thought I’d up the ante a bit, this one’s one of the forward front-subframe bolts which go into a special nut inside the subframe mount so this is going to be quite interesting to say the least.

I’m hoping I can drill and re-tap because if I can’t – how the hell do I get the old nut out and the new one in… could I remove the mount by force and weld on a new one? A plethora of intrigue and drilling with crap falling in my face surely awaits…

A quick “wang some underseal in the engine bay for now” has turned slightly into a “full front-end resto” but I figure I may as well sort it all now and at least I’ll know it’s all bolted together properly.

Pics to follow once I find the usb cable for me phone…

[no such user]

how the hell did you snap that one.

the captive nut normaly rips free long before the bolt snaps. still prods going to end up sliceing the mount open welding a new nut down then sticching it back up

[ld50]

umm well it did have quite a long bar on it but there was rust around the subframe mounts and like it or not I have to get to it to treat it so the subframe was going to have to come off…

The bolt which broke was pitted with rust though – it looked more like foam-rubber than steel. I did wonder given that area seems to have jsut rusted into one block of steel – perhaps I can just tap a hole in it and job done

Clearly the early years this car spent trundling round the pennines didn’t do it any favours, although by the end of this I will be able to personally vouch for the integrity of every panel & section on this car, inside and out.

that’s actually only half the fun too – clearly someone else had snapped the other bolt on that side and decided that carving a hole in the floor from the inside “tin-opener” style to access the hole (to add a nut) would be fine and then rather than welding it shut again – they just pushed the flap of metal back flat and covered it with carpet …professionals at work LOL (but at least the bolt isn’t stuck!)

[Author]

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