![]() 09/01/2018 at 17:31 • Filed to: Wrenching fail | ![]() | ![]() |
Pictured: a sheared bolt. Story below.
Because I accidentally drained out some engine coolant when I took the old knock sensor off my truck, I decided to go ahead and flush it all out anyways since I don’t know when the previous owner last did it.
To that end, I pulled the thermostat covering off to remove the thermostat so the flush will go through the whole block. However when I put the driver side bolt back in, I discovered that I had cross threaded it
After trying in vain a few times to get it to go back in the right way, I have the brilliant idea to just try to torque it down anyways. Yeah.
I get it pretty close to all the way down in there, then start the engine up. Sure enough, there’s a small coolant leak from the thermostat. Nuts.
“Well,” I think “now I get to learn how to tap new threads.” I decide to back the bolt out to use as a reference for the tap to get... and it shears in two halfway through removal.
So, now I get to not only learn about tapping new threads, but also drilling out sheared bolts! Only problem is that my only drill sucks so I don’t know if it’ll be up to the task. Is this something you can do with a hand tool like you do when tapping threads? Or does it really require a good, very torquey drill?
![]() 09/01/2018 at 18:21 |
|
If you pull the thermostat cover, is there a bit of the bolt sticking out you might be able to grab/weld a nut onto?
I’ve been in the same place, but front axle hub nut. the nut/axle wasn’t the same thread pitch or something was majorly wrong there, hadn’t checked the fitment before putting it on the car. Short discussion with the guy i was fixing the car for/with, out came the 3/4" breaker bar with extra iron pipe on and on with was cranked. I politely decline to ever have that car back in for any front suspension repairs now, lest i have to deal with getting that thing OFF again.
![]() 09/01/2018 at 18:31 |
|
I had almost the same thing happen to me when I replaced my t-stat but it happened when I was removin g it for the first time. Luckil y there was enough of a stub sticking out of the block to get a set of vise grips on.
![]() 09/01/2018 at 22:39 |
|
L
o
t
s
o
f
h
e
l
p
f
u
l
t
i
p
s
t
o
b
e
f
o
u
n
d
i
n
t
h
e
c
o
m
m
e
n
t
s
e
c
t
i
o
n
s
o
f
these JRitS posts
.
![]() 09/02/2018 at 00:46 |
|
Broke one doing the thermostat on my Jaguar. Fortunately on that engine it’s on a water rail I could take off, though that was a lot of work and required flexing the rather crispy fuel injector harness more than I wanted.
The stub turned out to be lodged in the housing casting so I was able to just spin it off once there was room.
But despite much scary crunching sounds putting the injector harness back in it’s run fine ever since.
![]() 09/02/2018 at 13:40 |
|
Ooh, yes! Unfortunately it is torqued in there pretty good and I don’t have a welder, but maybe I can get it out with vise grips
![]() 09/02/2018 at 15:37 |
|
Nice! I do have a stud poking out but it is torqued in there pretty good so I don’t know if I’ll be able to get it out with a vice grip. I did pick up a big old 10 inch one from the hardware store since the only one I have is teeny. We’ll see if it can do the job.