Broken Body Bolt

sipafz

Caught the Bug
Thanks for the advice everyone.

Victory!
View attachment 301145

I ended up taking off the rubber boot (Had to lift the body up quite a ways to get clearance to remove it), and drilling it out with left-handed bits and a bolt extractor!
Was a good learning experience and a good excuse to get some new shop toys (Propane torch!)

The hardest part of this for me was getting a center punch on the bolt since it sheared in a very non-smooth way.

Good to hear that you got it out!
 

Arrcherr

Caught the Bug
Awesome, way to stick with and get the results you needed on your own!!(along with some great advice)
 

jesse3638

Hooked
Awesome. It's always a pain trying to get the bit to not walk when the surface isn't flat. The cost of tools was probably less than what a shop would have charged.

Sent from my 2PYB2 using WAYALIFE mobile app
 

Tyjova

New member
Sorry to bring up an old thread but I am dealing with this same situation (2 bolts actually) and was hoping to get a bit of advice on how you accomplished this. So far what I have done was got a decent hole drilled in one of the bolts, but then the bit broke off into the bolt unfortunately. So if I understand what you did correctly, you took off all the bolts on one side, loosened up the other side, lifted the body up on the broken side and that was able to give you more access to the bolt itself? I'm doing everything I possibly can to avoid having to take it in to be fixed because I know that is going to be costly, especially with 2 bolts needing to be removed,
 

Mozarkid

New member
Getting that busted bolt out...

Sadly, I didn't discover this issue until the moment I had broken one of these bolts... WTF! Red Loctite? Really?
Red Loctite requires heating to 500 degrees fahrenheit before it will release. WTF were they thinking? :mad:

Extraction required a Snap-On (Blue-Point) E-1020 screw extractor set, a Milwaukee 1200W Heat Gun, and removal of the rubber body bushing (be sure to remove the other body bolts before jacking the body up off the frame a bit).
There is a push-nut bolt retainer that you will need to pry off so the heat can get up into the recessed area where the weld-nut is.

There is a scare tactic about "body alignment" the Dealers are spewing about - this is BS.

The 1/4" drill & it's extractor were adequate - it's only necessary to drill out a 5/8" deep hole, no need to drill deeper and risk drilling into the weld nut.
The Heat Gun didn't harm the paint (don't get it too close) and heated the surrounding metal enough (to 500 deg) that the weld nut stayed hot enough, long enough, to extract the bolt.

The Blue-Point Extractor Set is worth it's weight in gold - don't risk your weekend with cheap ass extractors.
 
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