How to use an Easyout to take out Broken Bolts
I bought My Set From Sears for around $15 and is worth it to keep one with having a older car. I had 2 Broken Exhaust manifold studs i just took out the other night when putting on a SSAC.
You were undoing/doing up a bolt, right, and it sheared off, and now you don't know what to do because you need that bolt in there... first point of call is a humble device known among other things as an "Easy-out".
If the bolt is steel in an aluminum thread you are in luck, it is usually pretty easy. In steel or cast iron thread it gets a bit harder. You'll probably botch your first attempts until you get a bit of experience, so it is good to have some non-critical failed bolts to start with.
A bolt has sheared off during removal, vibration and rust will do that
There is no magic here, it is a case hardened tapered reverse thread (right *loosey* lefty *tighty* instead of lefty loosey righty tighty). Don't buy a WA Salvage one, get two or three different sized ones and pay some dollars for them; probably around $10 each will be fit for purpose
Different sized Easy-outs
First you'll need to drill a hole in the sheared off stub. Carefully drill as big a hole as possible. The bigger, the less likely you will be on snapping the easy-out. How deep?
When you are a few mm in, put your easy-out in the hole and see if the tip of it is touching the bottom of your hole. You want it so the easy-out goes into the hole and is well clear of touching the bottom. This is where selection of drill bit size against easy-out is important so that you don't have to spend half a day drilling a 20mm hole.
Splash in some WD-40 as you go, not only will it cool the job down, help the drill bit in but it may also loosen the stub somewhat
Carefully drill a hole in the thread
Now the hard part. Put the easy-out in place and tap it in with a hammer. Just enough so it is really stuck and biting in the hole. Put your little trusty adjust spanner on the end and lefty loosey.
With some initial force, the stub with crack from its seat and unwind out just like it still had a head on it...
Crack it...but don't "Crack" it
Oh no, I put too much force on the easy out and it cracked off in the stub! First, try to get the tip of the easy-out out of your stub however you can. If it is stuck hard, and it probably will be, you'll need to drill it. Easy-outs are hardened so the same drill bit you used before won't work, you'll have to use a masonary drill bit. When removed, try again maybe with the next sized up easy-out.
Why did it break? Perhaps you didn't drill a big enough hole to use a really big easy-out (the bigger the easy-out the stronger it is), perhaps you bought a cheap and nasty easy-out, perhaps that stub is totally rusted in place and will never see the light of day again. Remember, the reason why it sheared off in the first place is because the lower part of the thread is stuck...
Success! Now to find a new bolt...
Options if easy-out didn't work? If the stub is poking out a bit you can try welding some bar to the end of it to act like a spanner. You can drill the stub and hole completely out and tap a new bigger thread to suit a bigger bolt, use a helicoil to continue using the same bolt size, or just use a nut on the end and forget about the thread altogether.
Hopefully however like me, the bolt sheared because it was just old and weak and you have the offending stub removed ready for a new bolt to take its place
You were undoing/doing up a bolt, right, and it sheared off, and now you don't know what to do because you need that bolt in there... first point of call is a humble device known among other things as an "Easy-out".
If the bolt is steel in an aluminum thread you are in luck, it is usually pretty easy. In steel or cast iron thread it gets a bit harder. You'll probably botch your first attempts until you get a bit of experience, so it is good to have some non-critical failed bolts to start with.
A bolt has sheared off during removal, vibration and rust will do that
There is no magic here, it is a case hardened tapered reverse thread (right *loosey* lefty *tighty* instead of lefty loosey righty tighty). Don't buy a WA Salvage one, get two or three different sized ones and pay some dollars for them; probably around $10 each will be fit for purpose
Different sized Easy-outs
First you'll need to drill a hole in the sheared off stub. Carefully drill as big a hole as possible. The bigger, the less likely you will be on snapping the easy-out. How deep?
When you are a few mm in, put your easy-out in the hole and see if the tip of it is touching the bottom of your hole. You want it so the easy-out goes into the hole and is well clear of touching the bottom. This is where selection of drill bit size against easy-out is important so that you don't have to spend half a day drilling a 20mm hole.
Splash in some WD-40 as you go, not only will it cool the job down, help the drill bit in but it may also loosen the stub somewhat
Carefully drill a hole in the thread
Now the hard part. Put the easy-out in place and tap it in with a hammer. Just enough so it is really stuck and biting in the hole. Put your little trusty adjust spanner on the end and lefty loosey.
With some initial force, the stub with crack from its seat and unwind out just like it still had a head on it...
Crack it...but don't "Crack" it
Oh no, I put too much force on the easy out and it cracked off in the stub! First, try to get the tip of the easy-out out of your stub however you can. If it is stuck hard, and it probably will be, you'll need to drill it. Easy-outs are hardened so the same drill bit you used before won't work, you'll have to use a masonary drill bit. When removed, try again maybe with the next sized up easy-out.
Why did it break? Perhaps you didn't drill a big enough hole to use a really big easy-out (the bigger the easy-out the stronger it is), perhaps you bought a cheap and nasty easy-out, perhaps that stub is totally rusted in place and will never see the light of day again. Remember, the reason why it sheared off in the first place is because the lower part of the thread is stuck...
Success! Now to find a new bolt...
Options if easy-out didn't work? If the stub is poking out a bit you can try welding some bar to the end of it to act like a spanner. You can drill the stub and hole completely out and tap a new bigger thread to suit a bigger bolt, use a helicoil to continue using the same bolt size, or just use a nut on the end and forget about the thread altogether.
Hopefully however like me, the bolt sheared because it was just old and weak and you have the offending stub removed ready for a new bolt to take its place
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