Stuck bolt broke off

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Mar 24, 2018 | 03:35 PM

matte

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Stellar HDF Member

Joined: Apr 2006

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From: Texas

Stuck bolt broke off

managed to break the head of a bolt as it for stuck advancing it into a threaded hole on my swing arm. There's about a quarter inch sticking out. Do I dare try a speed out or is there a better way?

Mar 24, 2018 | 03:56 PM

Ed Ramberger

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Joined: May 2015

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From: Then Wisconsin, now North Carolina

Weld a nut onto it and back it out or grab it with a vice grips (a quality one not a wal-mart cheapie). I would do that before drilling and possible messing up the threads.

Last edited by Ed Ramberger; Mar 24, 2018 at 03:57 PM.

Mar 24, 2018 | 04:08 PM

Geoff

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Joined: Oct 2007

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From: Nevada

I agree with trying vice grips. Before you do, spray the bolt with PB Blaster, Liquid Wrench or some other penetrating oi, then let it soak for a while.

Mar 24, 2018 | 05:27 PM

Bluraven

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Joined: Jul 2012

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From: Omaha

Quote:

Originally Posted by matte

managed to break the head of a bolt as it for stuck advancing it into a threaded hole on my swing arm. There's about a quarter inch sticking out. Do I dare try a speed out or is there a better way?

I ditched my bike last fall and sheared off one of the shock bolts that bolts into the swing arm so I was kinda in the same boat as you.

If want to to read the whole story here's a link to the thread;
https://www.hdforums.com/forum/softa...-look-for.html

Here's the part of thread where I had to deal with the broken bolt;

The bitch of everything as expected was the broken shock mount bolt.
It was easy to see that it was next to impossible to get the broken bolt out of the swing arm without taking the swing arm off.

I did some research and by all accounts taking the swing arm off didn't seem to be that difficult so I went for it.
I was able to get the swing arm off in a couple of hours and that was with me taking my time.

Once the swing arm was off I saturated the broken bolt with PB Blaster and let it sit overnight.
BTW, the bolt broke off about an 1/8 of a inch inside the swing arm so I knew I was not going to be able to use a chisel and tap it out.

The next morning I went to Lowes and got an EX-5 easy-out bit/extractor for $7. (EX-5 is what Irwin recommends for a 1/2" bolt)
I started out by drilling a small hole in the broken bolt and then incrementally increased the drill bit size until I got to the size needed for the EX-5 extractor.

During my research of easy-out use was the consistent advice to not be in a hurry and force the drill bits.
If you break off a drill bit, the job just got a lot harder.

I tapped in the extractor and heated up the swing arm mount.
Then SLOWLY started to turn the extractor counterclockwise and to my joy the bolt started to turn out.
A couple of minutes later the bolt was out.

A couple of days later my shock mount bolts arrived.
About 2 hours later the rear end was back together.

Good luck--

Mar 24, 2018 | 05:41 PM

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From: Centennial, CO

Mar 24, 2018 | 06:16 PM