Recomended tools to remove a bolt with a snaped head?

You may never need to find out how to remove a broken easy out if you’re careful. But they do break and when they do they can be very costly to deal with one way or another. The second kit you linked had reverse drill bits and if you use the proper one of those bits at the bottem end of the bolt and carfully drill straight into it it is likely that the bolt will come out to meet you.

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Extractors don’t always work well with seized bolts. If the bolt won’t turn and breaks off, an extractor of smaller diameter will probably break also. With some skill drilling the broken bolt out with the right size drill bit so that just the threads are left behind is sometimes the only way to remove a seized bolt. Then clean the bolt threads from the hole with a pick or sharp punch then a tap.

The best way to approach this is to take every precaution not to break the bolt.

The first one I linked the drill bit was reversed but it was rather short.

First, use penetrating oil. Apply it 2 days before you intend to tackle the job. Then use it one day before, then another application if you can manage it.

Second, be very careful with the bolt. If it won’t break loose, try a hammer on it. Do everthing you can to prevent damaging the bolt or the nut.

Use 6 point sockets.

Remember, it’s got a nut on the end and getting the nut off and the bolt out are 2 different things.

I’ll try my best to avoid the bolt snapping in the first place.

It only has a bolt, no nut.

And it appears that if you let the drill stray from center and destroy the threads in your knuckle you can use the bit that matches the unthreaded side of the knuckle and drill through and then use a nut on a longer bolt. Even if you fail you can still save the knuckle.

Can’t I just get a tap and die set and re thread? If I damage threads.

There are thread repair taps that will repair the threads if enough of the old thread remains.

http://www.sears.com/craftsman-40-pc-tap-and-die-set-master/p-00952105000P

and local McParts stores may offer those taps on their loaner program.

The torch they’re talking about is something like this. And you buy this to fuel it. So, less than 20 bucks at any hardware store and you have a fancy torch just like us! :wink:

Note: Don’t bother with a MAPP gas torch, which someone at the store might tell you to get instead. That used to be much better than propane, but the only factory on the planet that made MAPP gas closed down. MAPP gas is now a different formula and is barely hotter than propane. It’s not worth the bother.

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Oh ok, that’s actually was I was looking into buying, did not know that’s what you guys used!

After applying penetrating oil or heat (whichever you choose…) you might try to rock the bolt before trying to force it loose.

Use a breakover and see-saw the bolt back and forth between trying to loosen and trying to tighten it. Just nudge it hard back and forth.Quite often that will work a frozen fastener loose.

Good comments above about precautions when removing a rusted bolt so it doesn’t snap. Definitely time well spent if it prevents dealing with the even more time consuming EZ out. One thing that seems to work for me in removing a rusted bolt or nut is to first apply a little tightening force first, before applying the removal force. In other words turn it CW a little before turning it CCW. I’m not sure why this works. It’s sort of counterintuitive. But for whatever reason, it does seem to help.

Maybe the reason it works is b/c when the bolt was installed initially, the CW force made it work hardened a little in the CW direction, so it is stronger in that direction than the CCW direction.

I take a somewhat similar approach @GeorgeSanJose. When a bolt seems difficult to remove I put an open end wrench on it and tap it with a ball pein hammer while alternately turning clockwise and counter clockwise to unseize the threads. Of course a little penetrating oil gets sprayed onto the connection first. If the open end wrench doesn’t get the job done a pneumatic wrench sometimes shakes them loose when brute force won’t. But a broken bolt can be a real pain to deal with so a little patience pays off.

A simple propane torch like you’d use to solder pipes in plumbing is perfect. Remember that you only want to expand the metal, not weld it.

To reduce the chance of breaking it while removing, if you have a friend with an “impact wrench” (or are willing to buy one), that makes a huge difference. The vibration much more easily overcomes the “breakaway friction”. I have a compressor, but I’ve been told that some of the electric impact wrenches work good. I’ve never used an electric one, so I can’t speak from experience on this. But before using one, saturate and soak the bolt in penetrating fluid as best you can get to it. Every little bit helps.

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An impact gun will break off a seized bolt just as nicely as a breaker bar. Loosening by hand allows you to fell the resistance and alternate between tightening and loosening to work in the penetrating oil.

Well that totally bites! I had no idea because I am still working off my inventory of MAPP gas bought way back when. Just used it last night to heat something up. Now I will be far more conservative in its use.

I looked up the substitute. It’s still better then pure propane but not as good as MAPP originally was. From what I could tell, propane will heat to 4579 degF, while original MAPP was around 5301 degF. The MAPP substitute with propane and propylene combination is around 5193 degF. Based on those specs, it should still be far better than propane alone.

I hate dragging out the oxy/acetylene fire wrench unless it’s a bigger job. MAPP bailed me out many times where propane was a joke and just couldn’t heat fast or high enough for the conductive losses. I dread the time I run out and having to buy this newer formulation…

I got an impact driver (not wrench, I know, I wanted a drill to I figured I would get a kit and see how it works before getting the wrench) for my lugs and it works fine (yes just for removing, not torquing). Probably won’t work on a rusted bolt so I was maybe considering an actual impact wrench, we’ll see how well it helps.

So then, a impact driver/wrench wouldn’t be a way to snap or break it, like it would help instead of increasing chance or breaking it? In addition to torch and penetrating fluid?

You can break things very easily with an impact wrench. At its essence, if the torque required to shear the head off of a bolt is less than the torque required to loosen the bolt, you’re going to have a bad day. That’s why you want to do everything you can to make the bolt easier to un-stick before you start putting elbow grease into it. Penetrating oil and heat are good ways to tilt the odds of getting the thing out undamaged in your favor.

One trick you can try is to make a 50/50 mix of acetone and automatic transmission fluid. I have a jar of that, and it has dealt with bolts that normal penetrating oil wasn’t good enough for. Obviously the usual warnings about using in an open space and not huffing it apply.

@TwinTurbo if I recall the difference between propane and Map-pro is about 150 degrees. Propane is something like 3600, Map-pro is 3750. Map-pro can get to over 5,000 degrees as you said, but you have to use a dual torch with an oxygen cylinder (Bernzomatic has one specifically for Map-pro), but I tend to stop short of recommending that inexperienced people use it because as you know from your oxy-acetylene setup, using dual-gas torches wrong can cause explosions.

You can use an air wrench but what one should do is turn the air down a bit and then alternate hammering the bolt between loosening and tightening.

Much like see-sawing a breakover or end wrench.

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In an attempt to avoid breaking a seized bolt I have had a lot of success using an impact wrench, usually a 3/8" butterfly, and while opinions do vary quite a few share my opinion on the issue

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-66182.html