Hey all, I was removing my rear seat brackets to clean etc. And snapped both bolts when removing. Any suggestions on how to remove remaining threads?
Removing snapped bolts help?
- Thread starter Afreeman
- Start date
They moved and then popped. Vise grips can kinda reach but one is partially hidden by spring perch.
Don't thing there is enough room to turn vise grips
For the others, spray them with penetrating oil and loosen and tighten them to work the oil in before loosening.
For the broken ones, center punch and drill them and use the largest bolt extractor you can. If you can focus the heat, use a torch to heat them up... But that will probably ruin the paint on top and bottom.
Here's what I would do. Squirt some Kroil on top of the broken bolt. Let it sit and penetrate . Center punch the center of the bolt, drill down center of bolt and try an Ez-Out but be careful not to snap it off. If that fails try some heat or whack the top of the bolt with a drift. Sometimes shock will help to loosen a rust welded bolt. The bottom line is you may have to try several methods of you may get lucky. Once you get the bolt out apply Never Seize to the threads of the new one.
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This is usually my last resort after trying less destructive methods. Screw the threads up with Vice Grips and now your day just got worse. Always begin with the least damaging method 1st.
There's a pilot on the tip of those bolts so you wouldn't mess up the threads.
I realize that but there is not enough surface on the tip for the Vice Grips to get a good bite.
There are better easy outs. I've never seen any with a built in drill bit and I don't think that will help. I could be wrong, though.
Generally, the longer they are, the better. Some are tapered squares instead of the left hand threaded ones.
Otherwise, the twisted answers for what to do about stuck bolts have pretty much been said.
Now I'll ask, what the heck were you using to remove those bolts?
Generally, the longer they are, the better. Some are tapered squares instead of the left hand threaded ones.
Otherwise, the twisted answers for what to do about stuck bolts have pretty much been said.
Now I'll ask, what the heck were you using to remove those bolts?
Those easy outs pictured will work on broken bolts that are not rusted in like yours. If it were me I would use several different oils like kroll, PB blaster ECT. let it work for several days. Then center punch the broken bolt as close to the center as possible, drill as big of hole as you can without hitting the threaded part in the body. Then you have several options. one you can peal the bolt with a small sharp chisel or you can use a easy out and heat. To heat it try using a steel rod that will fit in the hole you drilled about 2 inches long. Use a propane torch to heat the rod red hot and it will transfer the heat to the bolt. Good luck.
MountaineerTom
LJ Enthusiast, Retired USAF Weapons Loader
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If they moved before they broke its because they weren’t seized in the threads, the problem is when the crud on the other end of the bolt wedges itself into the nut while trying to remove it. If it were mine I would center punch it as precisely as I could and then drill through it successively increasing the bit size. It will likely spin out the other side after a few steps in bits, if not keep stepping up the bit size until you get to where only the threads are left then pick them out and retap the hole to clean the threads.
Oldguy
TJ Enthusiast
Drill them them out completely, buy new nuts and bolts. End of story
These work when the head strips out but usually not for broken bolts, although it might work on a bolt broken from over tightening.
I broke one of those. Easy out would not budge it and I did not want to break the tip of one off, so I quit trying. I started with a very small drill bit and drilled down all the way through the bolt, then stepped up every drill bit size until the last of the threads came out with the bit.
Swamp Yankee
TJ Enthusiast
The ridged fluted extractor kits have worked the best for me over the years, they come with centering guides for the drill bits to drill the center of the bolt out, then you drive the extractor in and use the adapter and wrench to turn the bolt out. They don’t expand the bolts like the tapered style that make the bolt tighter in the hole. They also come in bigger sets than this one with specialty extractors that even work on say broken head bolts that have broken off close to the block without removing the head.
X2 to the Kroil recommendation but not PB Blaster which barely works better than WD40. Kroil and Liquid Wrench came out 1/2 in a test with Break Free in 3rd place of commercially made penetrants. PB Blaster was in a distant 4th place barely ahead of WD40 which is not even considered a penetrant.
Heat would be my first choice to loosen the snapped bolts.
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