hey guys, I stripped my tenshioner bolt, thinking it would be a no brainer and trying to re-do the timing on my gsr motor in less than 20 minutes. it skipped a tooth from cam to crank. off 15 degrees or so and causing a a stumbling acceleration.

anyways i stripped the bolt head, rounded off the the edges, went to sears and bought the bolt out set the one that twists on to the head. it ended up giving way as well.

so i proceeded to try welding another bolt(short thick one) on to it but couldn't manage to get a good hold on it.(i think due to the bolt being torqued to 40 ft/lbs, as suggested by the manual{haynes}) plus there wasn't enough space to work the welding on the top of the bolt. (Mig flux core welder, this one: http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=98871)

I proceeded to drill it, i'm about a 1/4" down the bolt and realized i'm not drilling straight. i am using a bolt extractor kit, and some left hand drill bits.

the motor is still in the car, with all but the tranny and rear mount still attatched. the chassis is a 97 integra.

anyone have any other ideas before i pull the motor out to drill/properly weld a bolt...

side note: does anyone know how much rotational torque can JB weld handle?

thanks guys, been stuck for 3 days now going through the process...

 

I had the exact same thing happen to me a couple years ago, i just put a wrench on it, welded the wrench right to the bolt. Came out no problem, but i had to lift the motor out a ways in order to get the bolt to turn with the wrench on it and not hit anything.

 

Welding a bolt or nut or even a steel bar to it is the best bet. Just grind it all clean and make it so you have a nice V shape to fill in with a big weld. You should spend some time setting up the welding machine and/or practicing so it works properly before trying this again.

 

hey guys, i gave the welding thing another go today, but after about 4 hrs of welding and trying to turn the bolt out, i'm having no lucky.

JW how long did it take you guys before the two bolts/wrench stayed on? i've gotten the bolt on to a point where i could lift the motor by the bolt(up and down motion) but as soon as i put some rotational force on it, it just tears the weld and pops right off..

if there is anyone in the south bay(milpitas) area(408) who can help me get this bizatch out and help get on with my life, i'd be willing to put up $50 bucks for the help of just getting the bolt out. i'm free anytime after wednesday morning. PM me for more info.

 

Mine was not too bad, i stuck the wrench on it, hammered it onto the rounded grooves as best as possible, and welded it right there, i think i only had to do like 3 big tack welds. Find your cheapest wrench and weld that bitch solid if you have to is my only advice, good luck.

 

inspector what kind of welder do you use?

 

I also find when Im trying to break something loose its better to give it a sharp sudden hit rather than turn the force on slowly. ie big solid hammer

 

Just a little 120v wire feed, it didn't take much.

 

hey did you use a aluminum welding wire or regular flux core wire?

 

regular flux core.

 

Get good penetration and let it cool for a few minutes before you start pulling on the wrench.

 

well i've been welding it and than i give it 30 mins to cool, i give it maybe half a cm of length when i start and i just let it feed..i'm a first time welder so i really don't know how long i should be leaving it in there sparking out and splattering. but i give it a good 30seconds to 1 minute on the same spot just feeding it through.

I've gotten it the mold with the bolts individually, but the wire isn't really sticking the two bolts together. should i be pushing them together wire welding? i've got soldering experience but not really welding.

I've got the feed speed set at 1, and the voltage at max. you can find the specs of my welder on my first post.

 

define good penetration?

 

you need to set up your welder properly. Doesn't it have a chart to show suggested setting for different material thickness. spending a minute welding on this is rediculious. It should take about 10sec of welding to do this.

if you dont have a chart, start turning up your wire speed and trying it on some scrap piece of steel.

 

wait, are you using aluminum wire?

 

hahahahahahahh i read the same thing you read too. i hope he isnt :facepalm:

 

don't even worry about welding. Just remove enough mounts and axles so you can jack the motor up enough for access and grind the head off the bolt. You should then be able to remove the tenisoner and since there will be no tension in the bolt once the head is off the stud should come out by hand. Happened to me once and this worked.

 

It sound to me that you need to find someone with a more experience welding.
I would personally remove the head of the bolt with a grinder or other type of tool. Then remove the timing belt and tensioner idler pulley. With the pulley off you will have much more room to weld a wrench or scrap piece of metal to the bolt shaft. Once welded you should be able to remove the bolt fairly easy.
While the bolt is really hot from welding you should spray the base of the bolt with lubricant. The heat should help wick the lubricant into the bolt threads.

BTW if you are welding on the car you should really think about removing the battery ground and any other ground that may be connected to the motor. Make sure the ground clamp is on the motor and not the chassis of the car also.
Good luck !!

 

I had the same issue in my EG civic, I drilled a hole thru the inner fender area, and went to autozone and got a set of the reverse sockets, put one on an extension, slid it thru the hole and put my impact wrench on it, came right out first hit!

tensioner never even moved was the good thing!


Im telling you this works like a charm

 

Bailhatch/0554 - No i'm using regualr flux core wire, the reason i asked was because honda's are supposed to be all aluminum cars(including bolts?) so i was wondring if that had anythign to do with. FYI if you havn't figured it out, i'm a noob at welding.

Hybrid KJ - If pulling the motor was possible for me i would do it right away and i wouldn't have any doubts about being able to remove the bolt but i drove the car into my garage face first so i don't have space for a lift now(it should have been a 30 min fix), i've got a pretty heavy incline on my garage ramp so it would be near impossible to try pushing it back in backwards. but it kept as a last resort right now.

PPLH8R -
1) Without a doubt i would have found a better Welder(person) but i've lost contact with all my car addict friends and currently onyl work on the car by me self now. Plus none of them knows how to weld.

2) I may just try that, but i dont' really have a cutter to cut the bolt other than maybe a dremel.. I figured i'll try really hard at welding something to the boltfirst before i went out about trying other options that would render the other options useless.

3) i had it connected to the bolt and was using the ground cable to hold it in place to weld, but after awhile of that i figured maybe it was a bad ground and tried hooking up the ground cable to the motor and used some plastic handle clamps to hold the bolt in place but it was the same result.

mrbsponge - Are you talking about like a craftsmans bolt out type of thing, i tried a gator grip and bunch of other types of "anti-round bolt" sockets but they all slipped, the craftsman bolt out was the loses one but it after i hammered it on ti'll it was flat to the face and proceeded to torue it off it would hold but give out and slip. i also tried it with a impact gun 580ft/lbs of torque. i was pretty much pushing as much of my weight towards the bolt to keep it on but it would slip, tried it enough that the bolt rounded so much the craftsman bolt out couldn't even grip anymore.

update:
It currently has 3/8" hole down the middle about 1/4 way down, from the left hand drill bits. but they've kinda since stopped being able to drill out material without getting too close for comfort to the threads. so i'm back to trying to weld a nut/bolt on.i guess next is just dremel the head off. lucky for me finals is over, and all i got is work now. i might just try JB welding a bolt on before i cut the head off.

 

what mig machine is it?

What about a vice grip?

 

if you cant get it to hold with a welder, jb isnt going to do it either. save your efforts for cutting the head off

if you dont have a cutoff wheel, just buy a cheapy 4.5 inch grinder and a metal cutting wheel and whack that thing off in 2 secs. you might have to replace the tensioner, but if its that frozen on there, its probably time anyway

 

You don't need to pull the motor out the car. Remove the front and rear tranny mounts, remove the drivers side mount. Remove the shiftlinkage and axles and maybe the radiator and heater hoses. Place a jack and an appropriate piece of plywood or something under the oil pan and jack the motor up. The motor will pivot on the upper tranny mount (which you leave in) and once you jack the motor up enough you will have clear access to grind or weld much more comfortably. It is alot of work but fixing a f'up usually is. Plan on replacing the tensioner after doing any welding or grinding on the bolt.

 

Essex - The mig welder is posted int he first post.

stmofo - JB weld noted, will look in to cut off wheel

hybrid_kj - may give it a try, going to remove the driver side motor mount that is on the motor.(talking about the connector piece, not the chassis mount it's already off)

 

The socket set I got was from autozone, they came in a blue and yellow case, it was like 15 bucks, I think it was by a company called IRWIN? they had a metric and a standard set, I got the metric set and use the 14mm socket. they have a spiraled thread in the socket so as you try to loosen it bites down and as it moves down on the socket it damn near becomes stuck in it, i had trouble getting the bolt out of the socket when i was done.