[Nrets]

I believe the bolt broke before I tried to loosen it. Whatever the case, the bolt is broke off in the block about a centimeter deep. I was told that EZ outs are the best way to deal with this. Can anyone give me an exhaustive response or a link to an exhaustive response of how to properly use EZ outs? I have heard horror stories and do not want to screw up. Is there another way to deal with this?

 

[The Ape Man]

Call around to the local machine shops and ask if they can work on it. Machinists deal with this a lot. You can drive the car without power steering to get it fixed. Builds up the arms.

 

[drmenard]

I deal with this stuff all the time.. On cars as a hobby, but at work on large valves... If the bolt broke while in use , maybe it could come out with a eazy out or a left hand drill...If its not froze a left hand drill will just unscrew it when the drill bites...or drill a hole with a 1/8" drill as close to the center and use a eazy-out..If the bolt was broken when trying to take it out, its frozen.. the only way to get it out is drill it right on center with a small drill and keep drilling with drills just a little bigger untill you get to tap drill size then pick out the rest ..

 

[The Ape Man]

Usually the bolts which go into the engine block are really nasty to extract when broken. Dissimilar metals and years can leave crud holding things together. Since this is a power steering adjusto bolt then some Saturday warrier could have done almost anything to it previously.

 

[Nrets]

Probably some Saturday Warrior overtorqued it, possibly overtensioned the belt too. Maybe that weakened the bolt. Whatever the case, I just got the car running. Cured an overheating problem by changing the water pump. 2nd one I've ever done. Makes me a Saturday warrior myself....but it went smoothly. I'm proud. Even though it is far easier than timing chain driven pumps, I feel like I can do almost anything in this car now. That said, I am going to a machinist to get that bolt out. I really don't want to even try the whole drilling thing. I believe it cracked while driving, as the pump was intermittantly working when the car last ran, in retrospect, one bolt was holding it in which was enough to make it work, but under a load (with the wheel cranked all the way) the pump would flex and the belt would spin causing no fluid to be pumped, I know this because when I was dissasselbling things to get at the water pump, I noticed that the steering pump was sort of flopping around in there. So the bolt must have cracked a while back. It took me a bit to piece this together, as I thought the bolt was just really short when I pulled it off...but yeah, that is why the thing was loose.

 

[kiowamec]

Step one.
Heat, Apply heat centerd on the bolt with a hand held propane torch. The heat will expand the metal in the area and compress it a slight amount. Sounds backwards right? When the metal cools it will retain some of the compression and the block will have less of a grip. It will also boil off any moisture.

Step two.
P.B. Blaster. This is not just oil. Spray once a day for a few days.

Step three.
Purchase a high quality extraction tool. I highly recommend Snap-ons extraction tools. They have an excellent design for grip, are low profile, and can be used with a wrench.

Step four.
Reverse drill bits are can be usefull but if ou have the extractors they are not really helpful. CENTER PUNCH the bolt. Drill a starter hole using a small bit. Drill the bolt with the rcommended size for the largest extractor you could posibly use.

 

[MrEightball]

I actually had the same bolt break on my '70 Eldo. I thought that I'd broken it until I got it out. There was some rust between the pieces. I'm guessing that three decades of torque eventually did it in.

In my case, the piece in the block wasn't frozen at all. I used a bolt extractor tool from Sears that drills slightly into the center of the bolt and then threads in and rotates it. If it had been frozen, I probably would have soaked it first with liquid wrench, let it sit and tried the same thing.