

| Subject: | Easy outs |
| Date: | Fri, 17 Nov 1995 14:58:31 -0800 |
Whoever noted that care and patience are required, and that the broken threaded thing is a symptom, not the cause, had it right. I've had better than 50% success with easy-outs, but I've also noticed that the successes are often in cases where the broken bolt or pipe (!) had accumulated a lot of cracking before it failed- as in, you can see the rust or discoloration over a sizable area, and fresh, clean, fractured metal may not be the largest part of the broken-off-end. 1) LOTS of liquid wrench, even if you've already soaked it. 2) Drill the biggest hole you can into the old fastener, so you can use the biggest easy-out 3) Soak more liquid wrench after each try 4) After you take your best shot at turning the easy-out, let it soak some more. 5) I bought some left handed drills from Griot's, and I expect they'll help too. I'm going to have to do my engine hatch hinge screws one of these days, probably shoud start 'em soaking now ;) I've never had to give up and go the a machine shop yet- I've always had success or something I could use as well as success on the car. On my 67 Corvair, an exhaust stud broke, but not flush with the head. I weenied out and put the exhaust pipe clamp and nut on that side first, tightened the nut as far as I thought I could get away with and then horsed the other end of the clamp down. I'm not proud of it, but it did work. My one abject failure: On my 77 Rabbit, the alternator bracket 8mm bolt sheared. I drilled clean through it with a 1/4 inch drill and soaked it and still couldn't get it out. After half a day, and this was my only car, I re-assembled the alternator bracket using a 1/4-20 bolt and nut and aluminum spacers and washers to make the 1/4-20 ACT like an 8mm. Then I replaced the 1/4-20 every time I did 15,000 mile maintenance. The steel bolt had obviously corroded into the aluminum head casting and wasn't free-able. This experience made me a demon anti-sieze user! Bill
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