Thread: Snapped a drive flange bolt :/

Remove everything again and drill a hole in the centre of broken bolt and use an easy put, be careful though you don't snap the easyout though or you'll be in more poo.

take the flange off

if there is there enough bolt protruding use a stud extractor

if not, drill and carefully use an eze-out

Screw Extractor Screw & Drill Set No.20 - Sutton Tools | Blackwoods Xpress

if neither of these work there will be other alternatives which may involve pulling the axle (no big deal)

try not to be too enthusiastic when you torque up the replacement

Call a bolt removal expert before you snap off an easy-out in the hole. Easy-outs are for bolts snapped by overtension, not seizure. Oh and if you try yourself, use nothing but the best quality tool. Having seen a Chinese cheapie set snap like glass I would be very wary of diy for the first time.

Easy outs . Hate them. I find if it's seized in there tight enough to snap the bolt it's usually tight enough to snap the easy out. As said before you snap an easy out and you are in real poo poo. Every tried to easy out an easy out?

When I have a problem like this I have a set of Cobalt drill bits just for this purpose. I start with the 3mm bit and step up until I can use my tap set and tap it out. Just make sure the first hole you drill is SPOT ON down the centre of the broken bolt.

Thanks for the quick responses everyone.
I will give an easy out a go even though they have snapped on me before,
Worst case ill spend $150 on a new hub and fit that.
I think i forgot to clean off the excess blue loctite when the hub was taken off last time and thats probably why its seized on.

Cheers.

Originally Posted by FisherX

Easy outs . Hate them. I find if it's seized in there tight enough to snap the bolt it's usually tight enough to snap the easy out. As said before you snap an easy out and you are in real poo poo. Every tried to easy out an easy out?

When I have a problem like this I have a set of Cobalt drill bits just for this purpose. I start with the 3mm bit and step up until I can use my tap set and tap it out. Just make sure the first hole you drill is SPOT ON down the centre of the broken bolt.

Could not agree more. The reason I have cobalt drill bits is that EZ outs are harder than most drill bits. EZ outs are the work of Satan, in my view.

When I got my first defender a bolt was snapped and somebody glued the head back on to make it look OK.......

I continued driving it like that for 10+ years without issue.

I'll go one better and say get a carbide drill Cobalt is for newbies

If I use an easy out then I drill a hole to take the most "weight challenged size" (can I say fattest?) easy out in the kit that the broken bolt can take. Generally my broken bolts get drilled so the wall tickness is minimal (close to the threads). Once you break the easy out you can then use the carbide drill.

These days I usually don't resort to the easy out if there is a little of the broken bolt protruding. Just drill up in size until the wall thickness is enough that you can collapse the hole in on itself with a small chisel or screwdriver with steel head.

The method used is usually dependent on your view of how stuck the bolt is, its size, and how much protrusion you have ie then there is flame.

I will generally clean loctite out with the appropriate tap, and wire brush the bolts (on a bench grinder preferably).