Broken bolt removal

[tlbranth]

This comes up a lot - happened to me. Here's a really good video on how to remove the remains and leave the threads intact.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJfkCj3FWBs

[gltriker]

[5speed]

what a slick idea..all I need now is a lathe to make them. lol

[scootsx2]

Very useful info and techniques.

[77Gowing]

Very cool. Need to get lh drill set

[Oldewing]

Very cool. Need to get lh drill set

Got a cheap set a Harbor Freight, not the best, but they have worked so far...

[robin1731]

Very cool. Need to get lh drill set

Got a cheap set a Harbor Freight, not the best, but they have worked so far...

They do hold up very well.

Now, if all bolts would only break off down in the hole that much every time it would make life so much easier. In reality they seem to break flush or a little above the surface more often than not. Not out far enough to get a good grip on them. Doing this kind of work all the time you get pretty good at drilling with the LH bits. Hope the bit grabs the bolt and removes it. Easy outs don't work well. So you end up drilling most of the material out and hope for the best. Or drilling it out and installing a helicoil.

Or welding a nut to the bolt usually works too.

.

[WingMan71]

Nice tip.

Going to have to add a set of those hinge sighting drills to my tool box.

***

[77Gowing]

Nice tip.

Going to have to add a set of those hinge sighting drills to my tool box.

***

Another name for those are "Vix bits."

[Dirty Dave]

Have removed quite a few broken bolts at work but never knew about LH drill bits. Brilliant!

Also didn't know that extractors needed to be tapped in. This dummy was always trying to just thread them in.
No wonder they never worked for me.

Too bad my top alternator bolt snapped. Do I need a 90 degree angled drill? I'm not pulling the engine on the Valk for that.
Seems to work just fine on 2 bolts but I hate knowing that one is broken.

[twooldwings]

just got a set of L.H. drill bits for xmas.
now that i have them, this should pretty much guarantee that i never again shear off a bolt, right ?

[Track T 2411]

just got a set of L.H. drill bits for xmas.
now that i have them, this should pretty much guarantee that i never again shear off a bolt, right ?

It hasn't worked for me, lol! They are nice to have, though...

[tlbranth]

As Robin pointed out, the bolt will often break at or above the surface. No matter where it breaks and no matter what your removal technique .... or even if you're going to helicoil the hole, the important step is to drill hole(s) in the broken bolt dead center. Seems like it might be worthwhile having a machinist churn out a batch of center-drilled bolts we could buy for the toolbox.
Early in my encounter with the old GL I had one of these busted bolts. It broke above the surface. I helicoiled it. I documented the process I went through here: https://www.ngwclub.com/forum/viewtopic ... hilit=bolt
Others added helpful comments too.

[pidjones]

.A trick I was forced to learn: My LH bits are niether hard nor shar. They would seem worthless, but I have been effective with them by drilling a smaller right-hand pilot hole first with a good bit. The LH bit then can find a much easier task of biting in and this has been successful for me twice (plus one broken brake bleeder that drilled through but came free with the extractor).

[77Gowing]

Good to know pid.