drilling out a easy out. Help

[Tassie Hang Over]

Okay guys We (Meaning me and my brother in law and beer) have broken a easy out in a stud on the manifold, Any tricks to drilling it out,

Should of stuck to drilling and retapping it, But no we thought we would give that a go, For some sill reason

[Blknight.aus]

with a very sharp requenched chisel see if you can tap it in the normal direction of do up and work it out...

gently warming the whole area then quenching the eazy out with freeze'n'release may help

failing that its time for spark erosion because really, you cant drill an ezy out.

[Homestar]

Not sure why they are call easy outs really, if the bolt was going to come out easily, you wouldn't need one and by the time you do, you can easily break them.

I've done this myself, but been lucky enough for a bit to be still protruding from the hole, and have been able to get vice grips on it to get it back out.

I find it easier now to drill the stud out and put a helicoil in.

Hope you manage to remove it.

[Brad110]

You could try a cobalt bit.

Use penetrene first.

[bee utey]

You've discovered the Rule of Advertising. They ain't.

[ADMIRAL]

You have no show drilling it out. The drillbit will gravitate to the softer metal around the easiout, and increase the mess. I would think using heat in an attempt to retemper the steel, or trying to weld something to the end. It may come to taking metal off the manifold to allow access to the easiout. Can you remove the manifold? If possible, remove and take it to a specialist. Some of the exhaust guys are whizzes at this sort of thing.

[amtravic1]

Depending on the size of the easy out compared to the stud, I have successfully drilled a series of small holes around the easy out. If you are able to drill close to the easy out and very close to each hole then the easy out almost falls out.

[ramblingboy42]

45yrs a fitter.....I can only smile, sorry, I believe drilling /tapping/use of thread extractors is a specialised job. I have seen it happen so many times...broken taps...broken easy outs.....get an expert from here in mate.

[Bigbjorn]

The short answer is you can't. You should have never have used one. They are tapered and force tightly into the drilled hole in the broken stud and wedge it tighter into the female thread.

You can drill them with a tungsten carbide drill but you need a rigid set up that will stop the drill wandering off into the softer metal of the broken stud.

Best bet is to use a left hand drill rather than an easy out.

[Bardizzo]

I broke two of the bastard things when doing the exhaust manifold on the td5. Had to get a specialist in, who's job it is to do this very thing around the workshops of Perth, it's all he does. He does it freehand and uses a small air gun having to sharpen the bit every couple of minutes! Took a good while to do but he got them.
Sorry doesn't really help but it can be done!

[BST4X4XFA]

Happened to a mate with a TD5. Broke two easy-outs, got a specialist in and about 2hrs later they were out. The guy sharpened the drill bit about ever 45 sec.

So, it can be done. All you need is the right people with the right skill.

Cheers, Jurgens.

[Hall]

with a very sharp requenched chisel see if you can tap it in the normal direction of do up and work it out...

gently warming the whole area then quenching the eazy out with freeze'n'release may help

failing that its time for spark erosion because really, you cant drill an ezy out.
X 2 As a metal trades person, Tool maker I know you are not going to drill a easy out.
Cheers Hall

[Judo]

Soooo... I just purchased some stud extractors to use on broken bolts in my turbo hot side housing. This thread makes me think that's a bad idea? Heli coils perhaps?

[V8Ian]

Keenserts are superior to helicoils in most cases, Keenserts are a more permanent repair, particularly when future disassembly and reassembly are likely.

Keensert (http://www.repairengineering.com/keensert.html)

[Bardizzo]

X 2 As a metal trades person, Tool maker I know you are not going to drill a easy out.
Cheers Hall

I must have imagined it then;)

[Tank]

Here's a tip, "if it needs an ezy-out", try some other way, in 40 years of mechanicing I have never seen a sucessful removal of a broken bolt/stud with an Ezy-out, if you have any left, paint them green and throw them into tall grass, Regards Frank.

[Blknight.aus]

Ive had plenty of success with them...

you need to rigidly adhere to the 6P principle

[Geedublya]

They can be used, however only when a bolt or screw has broken from over tightening.
Anytime you try to remove a something that has broken from trying to remove it is going to end in tears. Especially when exhaust related.
The rigid brand that aren't tapered and are knocked in work best.

[Very_Disco]

I make my living fitting 4x4 accessories and before that I was a marine engineer for 8 years and in my own experience easy outs are great.

The key thing with easy outs as with any other specialist tool is to follow correct procedure and if you are breaking easy outs etc then as mentioned above, your best bet for damage limitation is to get someone who uses these things every day to help you.

You can drill absolutely ANYTHING with correct combination of drills, technique and patience.

If you have access to a heat source with a very precise nozzle you could anneal and drill the easy out a little bit at a time but you'd want either cobalt drills or diamond tipped/carbide tipped ones.

Whatever you do be very careful because if you slip while drilling then it's a job for. A really competent welder to fix the mess.

[incisor]

You can drill absolutely ANYTHING with correct combination of drills, technique and patience.

If you have access to a heat source with a very precise nozzle you could anneal and drill the easy out a little bit at a time but you'd want either cobalt drills or diamond tipped/carbide tipped ones.

lime can be your friend if you have a broken tap, drill or ezyout in an object you can pack it around to slow down the cooling rate.

heat the tap drill or ezyout to cherry red then surround the item in a heap of lime.

leave a few hours and then using the hardest drill you can obtain and cutting fluid such as rocol or trefalex you can use the drill at a much slower than normal speed to erode / remove the object of your attention.

certainly not suitable for all occasions but it can be a life saver at times.

[snowbound]

Reading all of this with interest,cause I have been there & got the Tshirt! Also imagining a couple of everyday have a go at it yourself guys attempting these complicated fixes in an awkward situation in an engine bay! If its on a bench, not so bad of course. Exhaust related anything sucks!

[Rick1970]

lime can be your friend if you have a broken tap, drill or ezyout in an object you can pack it around to slow down the cooling rate.

heat the tap drill or ezyout to cherry red then surround the item in a heap of lime.

leave a few hours and then using the hardest drill you can obtain and cutting fluid such as rocol or trefalex you can use the drill at a much slower than normal speed to erode / remove the object of your attention.

certainly not suitable for all occasions but it can be a life saver at times.

+1 on this. Tho a hell of a lot easier if the job can be set up in a drill press/mill.

Also had success (at times) using sharpened masonary drill bits to drill hard material when there is nothing else available.

Welder and a nut is the usual tool of choice for removing broken/seized bolts at work.

[Sitec]

"Paint them green and throw them into long grass"... Now I like that! Sadly I'm with the majority here... Easy outs are about as much use as tits on a bull.. That said, once they've been heated to a dull red, they become reasonably soft. Funnily enough, I had to remove one from a Fendt tractor water pump last week. There's obviously not enough of it showing to grip it with vice grips, but remove the manifold if you can. Once removed, you need to find an M12 or M14 half nut. Have the spanner that fits said nut close at hand. Using pliers, place the nut over the hole with the broken easy out. Use a Mig welder (test on scrap steel first to know you have it set right), spot/puddle weld the top of the easy out to the inside of the nut.. (In effect now making a course left handed bolt). While the newly welded nut is still hot, turn it either clockwise to remove the easy out, or you might be really lucky and be able to turn it anti clockwise and remove the broken stud you were originally trying to extract.. If the nut breaks off, try again with another. This often works for me.
The other option if you don't have suitable nuts to hand is a small piece of 25x3 flat bar (approx 150mm long) with a hole drilled in it. Place this over the hole and try and weld the easy out to it. Then use it to unscrew the easy out.. Good luck!

[Tassie Hang Over]

Well glad that was a easy job, Went down to Super crap and bought some pinches, and belted the day lights out of it, Got a nice sharp drill bit and managed to drill it out, was hard going but its all drilled out and tapped, no to await all the parts I rodered to turn up so I can bolt it all back together