Easy Out, or nut and weld?

85CUCVKRAWLER

Active Member
Location
Tooele
Ive seen this repair before and to be fair, youre in the weeds at this point.

I would attack it this way before drilling to a larger size.

-find a bolt that came out good
-size a drill bit to the exact size of the shaft of the bolt, without the threads
-drill small then work up to this size of the shaft
-pick out/work out the threads once drilled all the way through

There is one more way to try before drilling larger as we;;
-Attack that left over bolt with a wire brush on an angle grinder
-get that sumbitch bright silver, no dirt or anything
-put you finger in grease and slather the kingpin hole around the bolt wit the grease
-Tack a solid tack onto the bolt, dont get it on the kingpin hole. Get it hot, really hot
-tack again
-build up a good tack mountain to raise it up out of the recess
-weld something to your new tack mountain you can grab onto
(if you can, oxy torch the kingpin hot as ****)
-twist out the broken bolt
 

mbryson

.......a few dollars more
Supporting Member
Brent Orton and I witnessed a master with an acetylene cutting torch molten a broken bolt in a certain D44 under a RamCharger. He burned the bolt out and left the threads in a D44 hi-steer setup. He was a “mechanic” at the RV place in Moab south of the Brewery. We pulled the knuckle off the disabled RamCharger on Lower Helldorado, left it for a couple hours, got the broken bolt burned out, tapped the threads in the knuckle, and returned to reinstall the knuckle and the owner drove the white RamCharger out of the trail and home


I have a torch…. (but am far from a master)
 

Mouse

Trying to wheel
Supporting Member
Location
West Haven, UT
For those who have not tried left-handed drill bits, I've had more success with them than with EZ-breaks ... I mean EZ-outs.

In for the finale
 

zmotorsports

Hardcore Gearhead
Vendor
Location
West Haven, UT
Here is a job I did about a year ago on an LS head. These are common to break off and luckily the client brought me this one off the engine.

ls1.jpg


Yes, that is a broken extractor in there as well and it broke off below flush.
ls2.jpg

I like ER309 TIG rod to build up the fastener to slightly proud of the surface.
ls3.jpg

Then place a nut over the weld and continue to weld the nut to the built up fastener. It is also good to remove the zinc coating from the nuts prior to welding. I usually keep a small variety of sizes of nuts that have had the coating removed by using muriatic acid handy for jobs such as these are they are quite common to come through the door. This saves me time of having to remove the coating.
ls4.jpg

The heat from welding not only fuses the nut to the fastener and weld but also expands the fastener and breaks any rust/corrosion so as soon as the item cools enough that it is no longer in its "plastic" state I put a wrench on it and begin working the fastener back and forth until it comes free.
ls5.jpg

ls6.jpg


Easy peezy.
 

Hickey

Burn-barrel enthusiast
Supporting Member
In all seriousness, Tig welding the nut to the bolt works way better. You can heat the holy hell out of it and then add filler. I have never had a bolt this hasnt worked on.
I can see how it would work better. MIG suffers from cold starts, so controlling the heat of a tack weld isn't easy.

I'll probably try the tack mountain in a little while, but I don't have much faith in it. The last tab I welded was holding quite well, but that bolt was not turning. I fear that they are stretched inside the hole with damaged threads.

The bolts didn't break because of a wrench, they popped off on their own over time. I should have used studs many years ago instead of these bolts.
 
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