Easy-Out sheared off in bolt... am I screwed?

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skyhawk04kilo

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My sidestand bolt sheared off today, so I tried to get it out with vise grips. No dice. Then I got an Easy-Out in there and started turning it. The bolt came about 1/4 turn out, then the Easy-Out sheared too. Now I'm clueless as to how to get the Easy-Out out of the sheared bolt. I can't drill into it, I think because it's hardened steel. Any tips?
 
yeah first try to weld a nut to it. Another option is take it to a machine shop that has carbide bits, it can cut through that hardened steel, well in theory. I took my moped cylinder, that i broke an easy out in, to the machine shop and it just kept kicking out even the carbide bit.
 
Nope, it's sheared off flush with the piece. Also don't have access to a welder. I'm going out now to get a carbide-tipped masonry drill bit. From what I've read, they'll cut through hardened steel. Not how I wanted to spend my Saturday, but oh well...
 
Same thing happened to me with the screw/bolt on the front brake master cylinder reservoir cap. Damn extractor broke off in it and have not had any luck so far getting it out. Tried dremeling a new groove, jb weld, etc. Going to have my buddy weld a nut on there as a last resort.
 
Pick up a can of PB blaster and spray it down good. Let it soak in, repeat before trying anything else.
 
Dont know about those carbide bits but yer in for a treat regardless. Matco man has a some bad@ss bits (some kinda tungsten alloy?)on his truck that are the only thing I know of to drill out tool steel. The set of 3 or 4 bits is well over 200 bones.....Good luck!!!

Craig
 
Well that's a rip-off, I think. I bought 4 diamond-encrusted carbide tipped bits from Home Depot for $11. I'll let you know how it works out.
 
Maybe it's just me but I've ever heard of a screw extractor working. Maybe I have, not sure. But if a bolt is stuck enough to let the head shear off, it's stuck enough to break an extractor that's a fraction of the diameter of what already sheared. If just the head of a screw is stripping use the hammer type impact driver. Never fails. About $9 at Harbor Freight. If I had to use an extractor I'd drill out practically the entire diameter of the bolt and hope that itself would help loosen it, then use a big extractor. Even if it was broken off flush, the first thing I'd do is Dremel a slot and try an impact driver on it.
 
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If you can find someone with a welder, do the trick where you weld a nut to the stud. Then use penetrating oil and a torch and it'll come out.

Also, I've broke easy outs in things before and a sometimes you can bang the broken extractor tip out with the corner of a chisel by trying to tap the broken piece clockwise. good luck.
 
soak it with pb blaster. drill into the center and hammer in a hex/allen drive socket that is slightly larger than the hole. do this as far as you can go, attach a ratchet/breaker bar and turn
 
Been there busted that. Of the answers; the weld the nut on trick is the best, you don't need the bolt sticking out, flush is fine. The weld the nut trick works on two levels you get a nut to turn and the heat from the welding breaks loose the rust that has the bolt held so tight. There is a lesson here also; when a bolt turns then tightens, STOP! go back the other way, use lots of your favorite rust buster, and work it back and forth till it comes out. It took me two days to get a stuck injector out of my Mercedes engine but I did it. The only way I know of to remove a really stuck easy out is an EDM machine, probably not practical here but I got a bolt with easy-out out of a Honda head that way. It uses a spark to burn away the bolt and easy-out.
I agree bigger is better with easy outs. both because you have a bigger less likely to break easy-out and because the thinner the wall between the drill hole and the threads the more chance you have of breaking the treads loose. It is very important to get the hole centered and that is not easy. Last week I was easy outing an air jet kept going bigger with no success then the carb body broke around the jet :mad::doh:
I did successfully easy-out an exhaust manifold stud on a 12 year old S10 4x4. I had to use 18" long drill bits and loong extensions on the easy-out but it worked, woo hoo!
 
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xjwmx said:
Maybe it's just me but I've ever heard of a screw extractor working. Maybe I have, not sure. But if a bolt is stuck enough to let the head shear off, it's stuck enough to break an extractor that's a fraction of the diameter of what already sheared. If just the head of a screw is stripping use the hammer type impact driver. Never fails. About $9 at Harbor Freight. If I had to use an extractor I'd drill out practically the entire diameter of the bolt and hope that itself would help loosen it, then use a big extractor. Even if it was broken off flush, the first thing I'd do is Dremel a slot and try an impact driver on it.
Click to expand...

I think my manual impact driver is the best tool I own. Unfortunately, it just stripped the original bolt. I Dremeled a slot into the Easy-Out after that broke, and the impact driver again stripped the Easy-Out. This bolt isn't even rusted in, I was installing the bolt this morning when the head sheared off. That's what's so bizarre. This is the original bolt, so I know it's the correct length. It didn't get all the way down but it felt like it had bottomed out. I gave it a little bit of a yank with a small wrench and it just sheared. I don't know how it could possibly be in there so tight now unless I ruined the threads or something. My carbide bits are working a wonder on the hardened steel of the Easy-Out, but I ran out of time today. I should have it drilled out tomorrow.
 
Something I've learned to hate on these old machines is kind of the opposite of that. Instead of breaking off just out of the blue, something won't feel right and you wonder if it's stripping or about to shear off. Because of what a previous owner might have done. But nothing can break on them that can't be fixed...
 
We know now that this was not a rusted in place bolt. I am not there but an armchair guess is that a burred or stretched thread caused local welding making the bolt hard to turn. Add to it the decades of abuse a kickstand bolt has taken and snap goes the shank. It's late advice for this one but drilling to near the bolt diameter and chasing whats left out with a tap is a reasonable way to approach a repair like this. Normally the tap will find the old threads and home in on them instead of trying to make new ones. they won't be like new but will often be serviceable. Like easy-out technique lots of in and out to get the crap out of the way is desirable. FWIW snapping off taps is pretty common too. My ole daddy's machinist chest contains a full set of tap extractors with lots of replacement legs. Many are well used.
41FYIyidHpL._SL500_AA300_.jpg
 
Well just an update... I drilled out the Easy-Out using the diamond carbide bits from Home Depot. I got the tip of the Easy-Out to come out after it broke loose and after that it took about 20 seconds to drill through the rest of the sheared bolt. That is really soft metal compared to the hardened tool steel in the extractor. Drilled it, tapped it, and now my sidestand is back on. I'm very happy... thanks a lot for all the help guys!
 

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