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BobK

BobK

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As part of my disassembly of all things on the interior of the Jeep prior to spraying it with bedliner, I removed the front and rear seat belts that were looking pretty worn anyways and will either be refurbished or replaced. I decided to take up the rear seat mount brackets, so that the floor could be properly sprayed and I would sand and spray paint (black) the seat mounts.

All was going well until the last damn bolt (see pic below), the head and about 1/4 of the bolt broke off, leaving the rest of the threads in the hole. The first thing I did was spray the bolt with WD-40 and then recalling my Dad and I breaking off a bolt for a valve cover many moons ago, I got out my drill and EZ Out bolt extractor thinking I was a genius, if only my Dad could see me.....

Check out the second picture of the broken extractor and the damn bolt still stubbornly in the hole. I decided to call it a day rather than do something stupid.

My plan is to go back out there with a small chisel and try to tap out the extractor pieces, then drill the bolt all the way through. Any other better suggestions are welcome.

Bob

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90201
 
This has happened to me frequently. I think those extractors are a gimmick. How much of the bolt can you access from underneath? Can you turn it out from there?
 
Wow, that sucks. Nothing I hate more than dealing with broken bolts and crap like this. I feel your pain!

I dealt with this with the windshield hinge bolts.

I managed to fortunately get the bolt out with a combination of drill bits and extractors and a lot of Kroil.
 
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There are two types of extractors available, one is spiral fluted and one is square fluted. I only use the square fluted type. It doesn't expand the broken bolt like a spiral fluted extractor does. You drive it in until the flats get a good grip inside the hole you drilled but it doesn't keep expanding the broken bolt as you turn it like the spiral type do. And remember, heat is your last resort. There is an art to using extractors! 😎
 
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Had the same thing happen to me on one of those bolts a couple months ago. Was easily able to get a needle nosed vise grip on it and heated it cherry red with cutting torch, came right out.
 
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I remove screws by trade. (Aviation industry)
As much as i hate snap-on (personal). I use thier extractor set at work and have a personal set at home.

I have not found anything that it would not remove. As long as it fits in the hole.

$_3.jpeg
 
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BobK said:
As part of my disassembly of all things on the interior of the Jeep prior to spraying it with bedliner, I removed the front and rear seat belts that were looking pretty worn anyways and will either be refurbished or replaced. I decided to take up the rear seat mount brackets, so that the floor could be properly sprayed and I would sand and spray paint (black) the seat mounts.

All was going well until the last damn bolt (see pic below), the head and about 1/4 of the bolt broke off, leaving the rest of the threads in the hole. The first thing I did was spray the bolt with WD-40 and then recalling my Dad and I breaking off a bolt for a valve cover many moons ago, I got out my drill and EZ Out bolt extractor thinking I was a genius, if only my Dad could see me.....

Check out the second picture of the broken extractor and the damn bolt still stubbornly in the hole. I decided to call it a day rather than do something stupid.

My plan is to go back out there with a small chisel and try to tap out the extractor pieces, then drill the bolt all the way through. Any other better suggestions are welcome.

Bob

View attachment 90200View attachment 90201
Click to expand...
Im not completely sure about this.

If you have access to the underside of the bolt. A "GOOD" pair of vice grips then twist it through.

If not you are in for a hell of a fight. The broken extractor is tool steel and hard as hell. Drilling it will be rough
 
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MutantNinjaTJ said:
There are two types of extractors available, one is spiral fluted and one is square fluted. I only use the square fluted type. It doesn't expand the broken bolt like a spiral fluted extractor does. You drive it in until the flats get a good grip inside the hole you drilled but it doesn't keep expanding the broken bolt as you turn it like the spiral type do. And remember, heat is your last resort. There is an art to using extractors! 😎
Click to expand...
I did not know this but it make perfect sense. I do wonder if some of the issues with broken extraction bits are more of a poor quality tool than a bad idea.
 
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05 Blue Unlimited said:
I did not know this but it make perfect sense. I do wonder if some of the issues with broken extraction bits are more of a poor quality tool than a bad idea.
Click to expand...
Quality is the most important thing in a extractor. But also the longer the extractor the more likely it will break. You are using a lot of force to twist the stud out. It will always break at the weakest point.
 
05 Blue Unlimited said:
I did not know this but it make perfect sense. I do wonder if some of the issues with broken extraction bits are more of a poor quality tool than a bad idea.
Click to expand...
High strength bolts like these are already close to the strongest steel you can get and it broke. If you expect a smaller diameter tool to exert more force you need much higher strength steel. At half the diameter, which most extractor bits are at their smallest working point you need 4X the strengh just to match the original breaking strength that didn't undo the bolt. Clearly put, you can't do it. High strength steels vary by up to maybe a factor or 2X the last I checked. That's why these things break. Extractors only work when you do something else to release the fastener.

Edit: they are very useful for extracting over-torqued or fatigue failures because the break releases most of the hold on the fastener
 
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I can't see how much of the bolt is left, but two weekends ago I was removing the rear sway bar end links off my audi and I broke a bolt. I tried the double nut method and it worked. So if you can get two nuts on the bolt this can work, especially if it worked for a hack like me. Here is a video on it.

 
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Boinked said:
I remove screws by trade. (Aviation industry)
As much as i hate snap-on (personal). I use thier extractor set at work and have a personal set at home.

I have not found anything that it would not remove. As long as it fits in the hole.

View attachment 90211
Click to expand...

Will be looking that set up, what is the ballpark price for that set?

You work for Mesa Airlines?
 
05 Blue Unlimited said:
I did not know this but it make perfect sense. I do wonder if some of the issues with broken extraction bits are more of a poor quality tool than a bad idea.
Click to expand...

In my case it was poor quality crap from Harbor Freight. I found one of my Dad's quality extractors afterwards (he was a machine operator and setup man in a large machine shop, he knew his stuff when it come to this crap. He would have been happy that I knew what to do, then he would have been pissed that I bought Chinese crap. ;-)
 
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skrelnik said:
I can't see how much of the bolt is left, but two weekends ago I was removing the rear sway bar end links off my audi and I broke a bolt. I tried the double nut method and it worked. So if you can get two nuts on the bolt this can work, especially if it worked for a hack like me. Here is a video on it.

Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure I barely have enough room for one bolt
 
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