Matty81

Need some help.

Went to put some radiator stays on me motor when the bolt head snapped off. Any help on removing the bolts, I’d be grateful.

Cheers

Fishbowlhead

iTrader: (1)

Grind flat, drill out and re tap/bolt through. That's about all you can do. I've had so many snapped bolts in my engine bay now it's beyond a joke.

Matty81

Would a pair of Irwins or mole grips loosen it ? Theirs enough room the other side of it to get a pair of irwins or mole grips on the bolt

Skoobie Dhu

iTrader: (3)

If you can get mole type grips on the other end, get some blowtorch heat on it too - sometimes just the heat from drilling it out will help loosen it before needing to re-tap it.

Matty81

I’ll give it another go tomorrow with mole grips and a bit of heat. If that don’t work I may drill a bit deeper into the bolt, bang a screw extractor into their a bit and see if I can unscrew it with mole grips from the top

JDM_Stig

iTrader: (3)

big nut over top, tack weld inside and use a spanner/socket to remove ?

Matty81

I can’t get anything over the top of it mate. Can get mole grips on the bottom but the top of it is completely flat.

LUCIFER ARAI

Do not use a blow torch

Matty81

Noooo I won’t be doing that!

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Did this on mine.

Soak in WD40 overnight, use mole grips to turn it out towards the rusted end, ie: further IN. Then you aren't trying to drag the badly rusted bit tyhrough the threads Mine came out relatively easily.

Replace all such bolts with stainless, they are M8 x 16 or M8 x 20 iirc. Might be M6. Screwfix. Bag of ten, under £2.

Matty81

Cheers mate.

Skoobie Dhu

iTrader: (3)

Err, why not?

Owning and maintaining 3 cars the newest of which is 12 years old my blow torch gets used quite often to successfully release stubborn bolts/nuts.

I'm a mech fitter to trade and after all the usual tricks heat has its place before resorting to destructive methods of removal - and in my experience it has a pretty good rate of success.

Fishbowlhead

iTrader: (1)

You also run the risk of serous fire if you don't know what your doing.

Matty81

Sorted. drilled through the bolt and re threaded the hole. They fit in nice now

drummog

Stainless steel bolts especialy the crap A" grade sold by default are not as strong as carbon steel that you are using. Therefore two problems.

1) if there is a high load on the bolt it will not have the strenght of the existing one and the grade A2 also has less give and snaps easier.

2) You will screw the A2 stainless into the existing carbon steel and you will get differential corrosion due to the dissimilar metal.

It would be much better to use the normal Carbon steel grade 8.8 bolt and use an anti seize compound on the threads.

Matty81

I’m gonna change the majority of the bolts in the bay at some point. I’ve found a company in the USA who sell a complete set for a reasonable price, stainless I think, the company is called z spec design.

drummog

If you decided to use bolts with less strength and that are more brittle i.e. stainless steel you have the problem of galling where the stainless steel nuts and stainless steel bolts welds the threads together.

You also have a similar problem on the areas where you screw stainless steel into carbon steel.

Therefore you must get anti galling paste for the stainless steel to stainless steel bolt ups and you also need to get a compound to stop the dissimilar metal corrosion when you bolt stainless steel into carbon steel.

I will leave you to search for the best paste for each duty but do not install without the proper paste.

Matty81

Ok mate cheers I’ll take a look