The most annoying rusted bolt ever

[sflash868]

OK. before I duck tape a grenade to the thing I thought I would ask for help here. 3 allen keys and one torx socket later I find myself asking how the hell that stupid allen bolt that holds the steering pump bracket to the head will come off. I have now stripped the christ out of it and have resulted to drilling it out. funny enough, 3 drill bits later including "the best that home depot carries" I find myself asking how the hell am I gonna drill it out? Any advice on getting this bolt out. Tried PB, a torch, impact, 6 foot breaker bar (which twisted the alley wrenches) I even heated the thing and hammered in a t-50 torx socket, let it cool and hit with the impact, snapped the damn socket, WTF?. This bolt blows through drill bits too. I"m lost.

[rmuller]

Try to use a chisel and a hammer... thats worked for some stubborn bolts/screws in the past.

[sflash868]

Thought of that, the head is flush with the plate.

[rmuller]

Can you get part of the chisel into the stripped hole? come in on an angle with it?

Also perhaps an ez-out drill bit?

[Ren Ching]

If it is stuck that fast an ezout will snap right off.

unless you mean a left hand drill bit which may work but if he can't drill it then?

grinder? though I think you did say it was flush...

Can you get part of the chisel into the stripped hole? come in on an angle with it?

Also perhaps an ez-out drill bit?

[evilfij]

Carbide masonry drill bit.

Ron

[sflash868]

a Masonry drill bit? That will work better? The guy at HD said it would drill through Stainless steel.. I asked him he had one that could drill through a land rover. he didn't have one. I'll go back and try getting an ez out. I'm sure HD has those. Maybe a counter clockwise rotation will do it. I would LOVE to take and angle grinder to it but the whole flush head thing is really cramping my style. What about a dremmel tool?? Think I could hollow it out from the inside?

[JSBriggs]

There is the old weld another bolt to it trick, but im guessing that the bi-metal corosion has it stuck good. As I recall, a cutting torch will snarf out the steel and leave the Aluminum untouched.

-Jeff

[evilfij]

Yes, the tungston carbide is harder than steel. You will screw a couple up doing it, but you will be able to drill it out. Get the proper sized tap while you are there.

[Roadsiderob]

You are making this too hard. First, remove all of the other fasteners holding the PS bracket to the head, including the nut on top of the front head bolt. Next put your allen socket or tool of choice into the bolt and put reasonable pressure onto it while tapping the PS bracket in a counterclockwise direction with a medium sized hammer. This will rotate the bracket and the bolt simultaneously and allow the bolt to free up so it can be removed. If it's really stripped badly, use a dremel tool with a cutting disc to cut a slot into the head of the bolt so you can get a short screwdriver into it...or just grind out the center of the inhex down to the root of the bolt to remove the head.

[revor]

Rob has it right on the head although in the past I ended up using Jeff's technique by weldinga bolt to the head of the bolt just to grab it with a plier to turn it out. Hard lessons learned..


Ahhh on another topic.... Ahhh.... Jeff, is there something we need to talk about?

[JSBriggs]

Ahhh on another topic.... Ahhh.... Jeff, is there something we need to talk about?

Its a science experiment. It caters to his ego and gets him big headed. I wanted to see how long it would take to get his head to explode! Feel free to use it as your avitar as well, it will quicken the results.

-Jeff

[revor]

I Like it!

Science is fun!!

[KevinNY]

I thought the most annoying rusted bolt ever was a lower pan hard rod bolt seized to the bushing sleeve??? No one sent me the memo.

[130Tdi]

carefull what you wish for, swelling Pendy's head......

[sflash868]

Rob, sadly that was the first thing i did. the plate and bolt both move when I hit it with a hammer, it's not rusted along the threads. The head of the bolt has rusted to the plate, that's the problem. I won't get a chance to work on it until this weekend.

[junkyddog11]

in New Hampshire we Live Free and Die Grinder.....and if that fails weld another bolt to it and if that fails get the red wrench out and melt some shit ....and if that fails I have a whole shelf of half way decent 3.9's.

Follow-up Post:

...ohh and most importantly hold your lips just right and keep repeating (to yourself) "I'm going to fawkin win...I am a winner"

[Davis]

Could you just rotate it a little to have some room between the plate and the block then use something like a socket that is bigger than the stuck bolt and try and smash just the plate so that the little gap you created would be big enough to break the plate free from the bolt?

Good luck!

[BarryO]

I agree with Rob; if nothing else works, chuck a carbide grinder bit into a Dremel, and carefully grind the bolt away bit by bit until the bracket comes loose. 'should just take a few minutes.