Sheared Bolt

[jaedba2604]

Morning,

I purchased, second hand, an AFE cold air intake, with a stated week's worth of use. Unfortunately the MAF mounting plate has part of the previous owner's bolt left in, sheared off. this wasn't mentioned, unfortunately, i bought from belguim so rocking up and demanding a refund isn't an option.

Anyway.

It's the pipe that attaches the intake to the engine, a sort of composite material, with brass inserts to screw into. I'm presuming drilling the brass insert out and bonding a replacement in is not a massive job.

Bit of a long shot.... I'm based near Peterborough, anyone any recommendations for a small engineers who may undertake this type of work?

Many thanks

[freakybacon]

Can you post a pic of the problem? How accessible is the broken bolt? Could you be able to cut a slot in the top of the remnants with an angle grinder, soak the bolt in something like "Plus-Gas" or wd40 overnight then attempt to unscrew the bolt with a flat bladed screwdriver tomorrow? Failing that, any machine shop should be able to drill out the bolt and re-cut the thread/run a tap down the thread to remove the remaining swarf.

[Superhoop]

The biggest problem you'll have drilling it out is heat - if it's brass mounted in a plastic type housing, it's likely that the heat from drilling will damage the housing - you could at least then bond a new thread into the housing

[jaedba2604]

i figured the materials would pose the biggest problem...unfortunately the top of the bolt is lower than the face of the mount, so a slot and screwdriver won't be much use.

thanks for your help.

[littleredrooster]

Does the design allow you to drill the whole thing out and just replace with a long bolt + nut? Is it like a flange arrangement?

[TallbutBuxomly]

Best thing i could suggest is drilling through the bolt with a bit 1-3mm smaller than it. Get some cool water tap or even better fridge and run it over it where the drillbit is going through to help with keeping it all cool so as not to damage surrounding softer metals.

[freakybacon]

As cutting a slot is not an option- you could clamp the item in a vice then with a centre punch make a centre dot on the outside edge of the bolt remnants then use that as a drive to use the centre punch and hammer to gently tap the bolt remnants out in an anti- clockwise motion.

[Sf_Manta]

Could do as above and porcue a reverse fluke drill bit to drill into the bolt reminants.
Because the drill is reversed, it tends to bite into the bolt remains and spin it out 9/10 times without actually drilling right through the remains.

http://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&tbm=shop&sc...

I have a 6mm drill bit myself, but you can get them down to 3mm as far as i found

[jaedba2604]

thanks all for your advice.

i'm going to go to an engineers and see if they can do a proper job, if not i'll try myself. was hoping to get this fitted today..! it's annoying when someone selling something second hand isn't as honest as they should be.

i'm pragmatic enough to know the risk's built into the price though...