broke a screw extractor: now what??

[tacoma73]

Hoping the Mighty PBB has the skinny.

Broke a #5 screw extractor off in the passenger side leaf spring mounting stud on a GM Dana 60. Stud had been torched off before I got it, so I figured I'd just grind it off and use the extractor. It is nearly flush with the axle housing, and the extractor is broken down in the hole I drilled.

Is there a good/easyish way to remove this or do I need to find someplace with a disintegrator???? If I can get access to a plasma cutter, how many bananas of a job is it to get an extractor out w/out hacking the threads????

any and all help appreciated.

[nissancrawler]

I did that in a head, I got it out by putting a piece of strap iron over it with a hole drilled in it, and welded it on the stud/extractor. A nut works fine, too.

[Faren]

Drill it out, its going to take time, lube and a whole lot of sharpening. Or weld to it.
Drill the whole over size and use a helicoil, if you bung the threads?

[Hackfabricaton]

Try the welding trick first. Lots of heat. They are made of hard and brittle material that a regular HSS drill bit will not cut. If you are going to attempt to drill them out you'll need a sharp carbide drill. And be prepared to re-sharpen the drill.

I absolutely refuse to use screw extractors, EZ-outs, or anything that resembles them. I snapped one about thirty years ago on my old Chevy 292 I6 timing cover. Never again. IMO: There are better methods to use.

[FF3PM]

You are not going to be able to drill out an exrtactor. It's harder than HSS drill bits. Forget trying a carbide drill bit too unless you have access to a mill. The carbide is very hard but also very brittle and does not tollerate any side loading such as with a hand drill or even a drill press. I don't know what a "disintegrator" is but an EDM machine can burn out the extractor. Is the hole blind? if not try taping it out from the other side. I have seen people take a chissel to them and break them to pieces. In short you are really in a pickle.

[actionpaintball]

Heat the stud and extractor until its red hot, apply candle wax and let cool naturally over an hour or so (literally set a candle over the stud as its cooling). Find a sacrificial nut and weld to the stud-as much aperage without destroying the nut sidewall. Immediatley quench with water and hit it with an impact.

Has worked for me 3 outta 3 times now.

[glfredrick]

Sometimes you can just bust that extractor out of there with a good punch... Especially if the bolt is already junk and you just want it gone.

Otherwise, a steady hand with a small-tip torch, or the welding method are about your only options.

[tacoma73]

Sounds pretty close to "I'm fucked". :)

1. I'm going to try and shatter the thing, but it's in there and has no where to expand, to it'll be chipping out if anything.

2. if that is pointless, I am going to try and drill out the rest of the stud around it without buggering up the threads... riiiiiight.

3 if THAT doesn't work, then I'm hogging the whole thing out and helicoiling it.

but all this stuff is if I can't get hold of a plasma cutter today. :(

[glfredrick]

You won't touch one of those things without a CARBIDE drill bit (and not a concrete bit either).

[actionpaintball]

1. Weld the nut
2. Impact
3. Thank me

[guidolyons]

EZ- outs....HAHAHAHAHA there's nothing easy or out about them. Try a Dremel 1/8" Carbide bit # 9902 and your favorite high speed rotary tool, Dremel, die grinder, etc, cuts hardened tool steel nicely. Cost $7 or $8 at Lowes, HD, Walmart, etc

[groundloopdog]

heat it up red hot let it cool overnite then drill it out the heating and slow cooling removes the temper it will drill just like plain old steel

[tacoma73]

Well, the extractor is out. I hate them and will never use them again. :(

Local here welded a nut to what was left of the stud, and managed to get a thread or two to stick to the nut, which twisted off LOL but after a couple rounds of that the extractor let go. Now I have 1/4" of stud left in the hole, so I should be good to hog it out and retap the hole.... I HOPE>


learned a hell of a lot about taps and extractors overnight LOL

Lesson ONE: DO NOT BREAK TAPS OR ESPECIALLY EXTRACTORS!!!! hahahah

anyway thanks guys.

[actionpaintball]

You should be getting full penetration with the center of the stud and filling up the middle of the nut. All the times I have done it correctly-the whole welding unit came out looking like a hex head bolt (nut=head)

Did you try the wax?

[extremetoy]

what is the point of the wax?

[ShawnM]

I've found that if I couldn't get enough weld through the nut onto the stud, I'd weld a washer to the stud first. Then weld the nut to the washer and let everything cool down. 9 times out of 10 the heating of the stud through welding was enough to loosen the stud when it was cool to the touch.

[sj_413dude]

EZ- outs....HAHAHAHAHA there's nothing easy or out about them. Try a Dremel 1/8" Carbide bit # 9902 and your favorite high speed rotary tool, Dremel, die grinder, etc, cuts hardened tool steel nicely. Cost $7 or $8 at Lowes, HD, Walmart, etc

That's the best way IMHO. It worked for me every time and I did it lots of times (over 20 times or so). I used to work at a maintenance department where stuff like that was brought to us frequently.

[CrewCab59]

The hole point of the wax is when the threads are hot it will melt into them and the stud will come out ( free's up the bolt ) !


You can use wax ,grease pin,anything with a wax based!


This works ever time ,we do this in heavy equipment all the time.

[tacoma73]

I used wax. It did not work. :(

the nut was filled with weld... it was just shearing off a couple threads, where the hole was for the ez-out.

I'm just going to drill it out (left-hand drill, maybe I'll get lucky and it will loosen the stud LOL ) and retap the damn thing. Last thing that had to come out on this axle and it's clinging tenaciously to its home. :flipoff2:

[actionpaintball]

Sorry it did not work-I think the EZ out pilot hole killed you.

If you drill it out-you can retap larger and just use a larger stud instead of a helicoil-it turn a custom stud with two different sized threaded ends.

[Grnscru]

Sucks you couldn't get the welded nut method to work for you. I had a bumper bolt break off flush with the fram on my TJ. I took a nut and laid it on top of the bolt, then used the stick welder to fill in the nut with weld. Allowed that to cool, then slowly starting working the bolt out. I had to turn it to the left, then about a 1/4 turn to the right, then left, then right until the bolt came out. From here on out I will not use an easy-out unless I have no other option.

[DozerDan]

I have never had the 'weld a nut/bolt' to it trick not work. I have easily done it 30 times on various things.

As long as you get good penetration it works. and like was said the heat from the welding often expands the bolt, then when it cools the rust holding it in is broken.

You can do that let it cool, then heat up around the broken off bolt it will expand around it, since holes always expand outward.

[yager]

In this whole thread no menation was made of pre-soaking the fastener with a good penetrating oil... Hose it down for a couple days, few raps w/ hammer, indian dance etc..

[TNToy]

I've actually never had good luck on a truly frozen fastener with penetrating oil. I find welding a bolt to it and hitting it with a 600+ ft/lb impact to be far faster, and more effective.

[tacoma73]

I should have stated: I doused this thing in penetrating oil 2x a day for two weeks. Didn't help one bit.