broken bolt help

[80GS750]

ok, so i broke off 3 bolts in the head today, i was taking the exhaust off and they just snapped right off. no effort whatsoever. any good ideas on how to get them out? im gonna try to find an easy out tomorrow for it.... if not i will probably try to drill them out, then retap the hole. but i dont want to have to put in a bigger bolt if i dont have to, that would suck

any info is greatly appreciated.

 

[jimcor]

NO,NO,NO...NO EASY OUT. MARK MY WORDS, IF YOU TRY AN EASY OUT YOUR NEXT POST WILL BE GUYS I JUST BUSTED AN EASY OUT OFF...

Yes, I was yelling! Screaming in fact. Do a search. Or just sit here and wait for the guys who have had this same problem check in and tell you what to do. Good Luck, God Bless. Yelling and screaming to warn, not to give you hell.

 

[80GS750]

ok.... ill wait and see if anyone has any better ideas.... i really dont know what to do...

 

[jimcor]

Don't get in a hurry, they'll check in. You're not the first to do this.

 

[earlfor]

FORGET!! the easy out, you will just end up breaking it off and once you have a broken easy out, drilling THAT out will be impossible since it is harder than the steel in any drill bit.

Best solution is take the head off and take it to a machine shop. That could easily be the cheapest solution in the long run. I can guarantee that is the least frustrating solution.

If you insist on doing it yourself (as I did), I made a drill jig that was held in place by the remaing bolts (that did not break) This took a precisely located center on the broken bolts and sleeves on the holes in the jig to allow for drilling out the broken bolts starting with a small drill bit and step by step, going to larger sizes. It was an extremely tedious process as was templating the exhaust bolt pattern and building a jig. I will never do it again.

Dont even try to do it by hand and by eyeball. All you will end up with is buggered holes at the wrong angle that will not line up with your exhaust pipe flange and if you drill too deep, you'll have drill bit through a piston. LOL

Dont take the head to a garage, take it to a Machine Shop.

E.

ok, so i broke off 3 bolts in the head today, i was taking the exhaust off and they just snapped right off. no effort whatsoever. any good ideas on how to get them out? im gonna try to find an easy out tomorrow for it.... if not i will probably try to drill them out, then retap the hole. but i dont want to have to put in a bigger bolt if i dont have to, that would suck

any info is greatly appreciated.

 

[Guest]

easy out

easy out

i have successfully used easy out on such occassion
i take your bolts are m8 so you can drill 5-6mm hole (but start with a smaller size) and the easy out you would use would be quite chunky and shouldn't snap that easily
though, you do need to be gentle with it
however, this also depends on how stuck the bolts are and how much force you'd need to turn them
also, do the broken bolts still protrude from the head or have they snapped inside?

 

[salty_monk]

It's a real pain when something like this happens
No great advice to offer... sometimes you can drill the bolt bigger & bigger until you can just break the last bit of thread with a screwdriver & pick them out... other than that I would drill it right out & helicoil it (which you could do yourself) or worse case take it to a shop & have them remove it or helicoil it.

Dan

 

[Suzuki mad]

I've snapped exhaust bolts, studs at the bottom of the fork leg........

How much of the stud is left?

If there's enough of the broken bolt you can have a spare nut welded to the bolt. While it's hot undo the bolt with the welded nut and it should come out. The heat of the weld should loosen the grab of the aluminium on the steel bolt.

If the bolt is snapped flush then there are two ways to go. 1/ Drill it out yourself or 2/ strip the head off and take it to a local engineer who can drill it out for you.

You shouldn't have to get a larger bolt. If the removal is done correctly a bolt should go straight back into the old thread job done. If the thread is damaged either a helicoil or a time cert can be put into the head to do the same job as the old thread.

Suzuki mad

1981 GS1000ET
1983 GS(X)1100ESD
2002 GSF1200K1

 

[omaharj]

I'm here in Omaha and know of a good motorcycle machinist(valves grinded etc.) who has a great rep. Let me know if you need his #. RJ

 

[dennis roy]

Think of it this way...you only broke 3, thats less than half. When I did mine I broke 5. Don't use stainless bolts when you replace them. I did, and forgot to put a gasket in. When I tried to pull one of the bolts I just put in, it broke. You don't know hell until you try to drill stainless.
You can get reverse rotation drill bits. Since you need to drill them anyway maybe you will get lucky and it will back out. Something I did was to drill a small hole first and then spray deep creep into the hole when I drilled through the bolt. I don't know if it helped but it gets it into the rear threads.
I used the center exhaust flanges as a guide for drilling. Just make sure its bolted up tight so it doesnt move around. I just had to take the exhaust off again to clean the screen in the oil pan and replaced everything with studs.
My advice is to do the screen while the exhaust is off.

 

[80GS750]

thanks for the advice guys.... both my dad and my father in law are coming over here soon to take a look at it so we will see what happens! one stud is stickin out about 1/2 inch and 2 others are flush..... yipee

 

[Suzuki mad]

Practice make purfect.....

Practice make purfect.....

Look at the bright side of it. You can get twice the practice of drilling rather than welding.

 

[emjay]

I made a jig like Earl did and drilled it out myself. Even so I still messed up the threads. I then drilled it out one size bigger and used a helicoil. It worked, but it was a pain in the a$$.

If it ever happens again I'm pulling the head and taking it to a machine shop. Good opportunuty to replace some gaskets. :-D

 

[80GS750]

well i got a tapfor it, and some new bolts.... so i guess we will see what happens!

 

[jimcor]

well i got a tapfor it, and some new bolts.... so i guess we will see what happens!

Don't get in a hurry. Take your time.

 

[80GS750]

ok, well i broke the one studd off flush..... i have a hole drilled through it but its off center a little.... one bolt i havent touched and the other i got a good hole drilled out but i just broke off a drill bit inside and its stuck....

a few questions....

how long and how hard is it to remove the head? how much are the gaskets? what will it cost to have the holes fixed? how long until i get the head back on and ready to run again?

i have no manuals.... and no experience with this type of engine, but i am a decent mechanic and am good with my hands, just bad with broken bolts...

thanks guys....

the other option is to just drill them out oversize and helicoil it... i didnt pay much for the bike, so it reallly doesnt matter to me...

 

[Clone]

Get your buddies truck and take the whole bike to a machine shop. They can tack a rod onto the stud and then screw it out. Figure $10 per stud, it might be cheaper to just pay for an hour of shop time. i took an entire 3.9V6 to a shop and left it on the workbench. Came back the next day and picked it up after they removed the two broken studs and charged me $10 because i just left it there so they could do it in a down moment.

 

[tconroy]

ok, well i broke the one studd off flush..... i have a hole drilled through it but its off center a little.... one bolt i havent touched and the other i got a good hole drilled out but i just broke off a drill bit inside and its stuck....

a few questions....

how long and how hard is it to remove the head? how much are the gaskets? what will it cost to have the holes fixed? how long until i get the head back on and ready to run again?

i have no manuals.... and no experience with this type of engine, but i am a decent mechanic and am good with my hands, just bad with broken bolts...

thanks guys....

the other option is to just drill them out oversize and helicoil it... i didnt pay much for the bike, so it reallly doesnt matter to me...

'You should have drilled right thru the middle of the broken bolt and thread it for a 6mm. This is a fix that works and doesnt cost much if you want to ride and not hassle with getting the original bolts out till winter when your not riding.

 

[80GS750]

man thats a good idea... never would have thought of that....

crap.

my dad is coming over tomorrow to see if we can drill the remainder out... then i think we will end up helicoiling it..... crap..... again

 

[CA180]

Good luck drilling through a bit. I broke a bit off in an exhaust manifold on my 350 and tried drilling it... Needless to say, i've got headers now.

I'm a big DIY guy, but i'm going to go with everyone else on this one.

Take it to someone who does this on a regular basis.

I wish you the best of luck though