Re: Re: Re: How to remove a broken bolt (Please help)

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: How to remove a broken bolt (Please help)

Comments:
: : : : I have an aluminum steering gear housing with a bolt broken off in it. The bolt is about a 3/8" x 1 1/2" bolt. I've already drilled the center of the bolt out with about 7/64" drill bit the entire length of the bolt. Only one end of the bolt is visible. I tried to use an easy out but it wasn't budging and I didn't want to break the easy out off in the bolt. : : : : Can I heat aluminum? Can I try to weld a new bolt head to the bolt? Should I just drill it out completely and use a heli-coil? : : : : Please comment. : : : I don't where to get it, but nitric acid will eat the steel bolt and not touch the aluminum. It will also eat flesh, lungs, clothes and the like. : : : Otherwise penetrations of penetrating oils such as kerosene, wd-40, liquid wrench, and pierce (the best of the lot that I've had succes with, kerosene and WD-40 seem equally ineffective) are more effective if the stuck parts are violently jarred to open up a crack in the corrosion for their entry. But don't peen over the ends of the bolt to make a rivet! : : : Have you considered retapping the hole in the steel, say for a 5/16" bolt and then put a sleeve around the bolt in the other piece? The heat of drilling and tapping may loosen the stuck bolt or just prove its really stuck. : : : You can heat aluminum but not violently, it melts before it glows. Aluminum does expand faster than steel so heat is one way to loosen up a stuck bolt. Better with a hot air gun than acetylene or even propane. : : Have you actually tried the nitric acid? It sounds like it might work. I hate to see steel bolts in aluminum, I've spent hours with similar problems, I guess stainless bolts or anti-seize compond cost too much for the people building this stuff. EEA : I've not tried nitric acid, but I've read about it many times for just this application. Its far less violent than breaking easy-outs. : The left handed drill bits are a good idea though right handed will work too if its a through hole. More than once, I've carefully worked my way up in size to the tap drill for a bolt and had the remains spin out a few sizes before I got there. That was probably taking a 32nd of an inch diameter per drill bit, if I was lucky. And the bolt was in steel. I break taps in aluminum and there the nitric acid would be handiest. Far neater than neglecting that hole in the assembly. : I broke a large easy-out in a 5/8" bolt last year. Turned out it had been locktited in place before it broke off flush. The solution (in a steel casting) was that I used up several small grinding bits in my air die grinder and slotted the threads but with the bolt in two or three pieces it came out peacefully and I passed a tap through the threads to straighten them up.

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