I broke the head off of the bolt that is supposed to go were i have circled. The rest of the bolt is still within, how do i take the bolt out?

I have heard something about drilling, anyone have any ideas?


EDIT: What drill size and or what easy out size do i use on this 14mm bolt?



Modified by thrty8street at 8:38 PM 6/23/2004

 

That's gonna be tuff.


Best bet is to take it to a machine shop, just have them take it out. If that is not an option.

Take the head of the bolt to your local hardware/auto store. Tell them you want the proper size drill and EASY OUT (also called Screw Extractors) for that bolt.

First you will drill a pilot hole into the bolt then you will drill the easy out into it. The easy out will spin the bolt in the opposite direction spinning it out.

The easy outs look like this

http://www.toolprice.com/product/6710A

 

yea taking it to a machine shop is out of the question, the bolt is a 14mm. ill try going to advance auto parts tomarow to see if they got that.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by thrty8street &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">yea taking it to a machine shop is out of the question, the bolt is a 14mm. ill try going to advance auto parts tomarow to see if they got that.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Just about any hardware place will have it. Make sure you get a nice bit (carbite) cause drilling that is going to be a bitch.

 

are there any write-ups to this?

 

If you get an easy out soak the bolt with pb blaster first (similar to liquid wrench, it's the first stuff I've used that really works good). If you don't have an easy out, you can drill a hole in the middle of the bolt, and then another hole down the threads, touching them a little bit for a relief. Then you can dig out the remainder of the bolt with a nail, small screwdriver, etc... or you could just cut the nut off the other side and get a new nut & bolt. Good luck.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by eastbay92cx &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">If you don't have an easy out, you can drill a hole in the middle of the bolt, and then another hole down the threads, touching them a little bit for a relief. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Bad idea though, Ive done it before. If you hit those threads just a bit, you need a tap and die set, or a new LCA.

Just get the easy out, its like 8 bucks in total (for bit and easy out)

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by eastbay92cx &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">If you get an easy out soak the bolt with pb blaster first (similar to liquid wrench, it's the first stuff I've used that really works good). If you don't have an easy out, you can drill a hole in the middle of the bolt, and then another hole down the threads, touching them a little bit for a relief. </TD></TR></TABLE>
what the heck is pb blaster and how can i soak the bolt if its stuck inside?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by thrty8street &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
what the heck is pb blaster and how can i soak the bolt if its stuck inside?</TD></TR></TABLE>

PB blaster is a bolt loose type of spray. You can spray it into the head (whats left of it) of the bolt to soften it up and lube it up a bit.

Are you a decent driller?

A few tips when drilling studs and bolts like this.

Push hard and drill slow. Drilling fast heats up the metal and makes it harder to chew.

If you get lucky you wont even have to go all the way through just halfway might be enough to get the easy out into it and reverse the threads.

 

that bolt breaks for everyone
take a cut off wheel cut the bushing go buy new bolt and bushing from honda and youll never have problems with it again, or drill it out and get a new bolt, when you put the new bolt in apply some anti-seize so it wont rust so bad like your old one

 

are you replacing the struts??? if so, instead of cutting the bushing cut the nit on the end of the other side of the strut, drop the bushing- problem solved

 

no i am changine my springs and i am re-using the stock struts. I am just going to use the easy out method.

 

Just get the old bushing out and put in Energy suspension one, put it in on both sides though. And get a new bolt

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ABK &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Just get the old bushing out and put in Energy suspension one, put it in on both sides though. And get a new bolt</TD></TR></TABLE>

uh, the bushings are on the shocks themselves, not in the LCA like on a GSR/EH LCA

 

this is what i would do if you want to take the bolt out of the lower control arm.

-remove the bolt that connects to the trailing arm. (bolt to the left of red circle)
its 14mm aswell.
-then remove the 2 top nuts that hold the top hat.
-remove the strut, and use a punch and hammer that foooker out. it will punch out eventually.


if you want to take out the bolt out of the shock, i would first try using a punch and a hammer first. if that doesnt work. drilling is your best bet.

hope that helps. good luck

 

this is why everyone taking off this bolt the first time should always at least heat it up with a torch and spray some penetrating oil before even trying, the bolt ALWAYS siezes...

anyway...when mine seized up i cut through the bushing with a cut off wheel and replaced the bolt and bushing, if you dont have access, id try drilling it out, you might go through a few bits

 

thats what hondas are known for i lowered 5 different hondas for my friends n i and they all broke, the bolt rusts in the bushing which makes it hard to get out. Should get new control arms is the way to go.

 

Heres what I did when the same thing happened to by buddies civic. Take the whole control arm out of the car with the spring/shock combo still on it. Put it in a vice. Then there is the bolt that is tack welded onto the other side of the shock. What I did was take a big as breaker bar with a socket and just turned it till it broke the welds and came off. I then took a big *** chissel and hammer and started pounding the **** out of it until it came out. Now my buddy was reusing his stock shocks so I just spray painted were there was bare metal from removing the nut so it didnt rust and reasembled it with a new bolt. Hope this helps.

 

Be carefull with the easy-out. If you are going to go this route then your goign to want to use carbide easy-outs, and if you break that trying to remove the bolt it's going to get even harder. It's hard for machine shops to even get out once you break carbide off inside. They will have to slowly chip away at the carbide with another carbide bit and it isn't fun. I do design work for a machine shop and I've seen it happen. Sometimes they even have to use a EDM machine to "burn" it out. So the last thing you going to want to do is break that easy-out off inside of that bolt.

 

If i decide to replace the LCA's were could i get some aftermarket ones?

 

up, updated

 

Just get a new nut and bolt and hack off the old nut with the remaining bolt left in it tack the new nut in place. The seized bolt in the bushing is near impossible to get out and my friend had a machinist at his work just make a new one.

 

EDIT: What drill size and or what easy out size do i use on this 14mm bolt?

 

DONT USE AN EASY OUT

i will bet money that it doesnt work. take the LCA off, then burn out the bushing and put polyurethane bushings in, or drill it out, or soak it in pb blaster and pound it till it comes out. those are your options.

 

use a left handed drill bit pb'laster is great yeah thats how its spelled i sell the crap outa that stuff