Broke my exhasut bolt..

[sho_greg]

Broke one of the exhaust bolt/stud... Whats the best way to fix that?

[WildBill1]

If there is enough stud weld a nut on it and back it out with a wrench.

[cowpuc]

If there is enough stud weld a nut on it and back it out with a wrench.

Yup,, what Bill said! You can lay a nut just big enough to slide over the broken stud and hit it with either a mig welder or arc weld it - the heat from either will make the removal easier. Dont over do the weld though - it dont take much and to much may chase the threads out with the broken stud.

I have also removed em with Vise Grips.. Nose as big a pair of vice grips onto it as possible and clamp as tight as you can.. If its impossible to get a side ways grip - go in with the nose and use a set of channel locks across the body of the vice grips to turn it.. I like to work it back and forth to go easier on the threads and add a little penetrating oil to the stud as I am working it.. If you can get a dremel tool or a die grinder at the stud - carefully grinding a flat surface onto the stud will help the Vice Grips A LOT!!

If its snapped right at the head, pick up an easy out a little smaller than the stud diameter - I personally like spiral easy outs but square ones will work, center punch the broken stud in the center of the stud, take a good sharp small drill bit (I like using brand new 1/8th inch bits for this - very inexpensive at Menards for GOOD ONES) and carefully drill a pilot hole into the stud 3/8th inch deep - dont forget to pull the drill in and out to clean the shavings off the drill bit as your drilling - this will keep you from breaking a bit from the shavings binding it up.. Watch carefully and keep the drill bit lined up as closely as parallel with the broken stud as possible - I know its guess work but if you look at the other stud or if the surface around the broken stud is machined you can just hold perpendicular to that surface - its fairly easy to guess accurately - it does not have to be perfect - you just want to keep from drilling thru the bolt body. Now select a drill bit whose outside diameter is slightly larger than the very end of the easy out. Finish drilling the bolt with that bit and drill only to the depth that you set with the pilot drill. Now take your easy out and start it into the hole - tap on the end of it with a hammer and drive it into the stud, put a wrench on the and see if you can break the stud loose. If not, pull the easy out out, beg borrow or steal an acytelene torch - use a brazing tip (not a cutting tip) with the flame adjusted to a good hot cone - heat the stud internally where you drilled for the easy out - I like to heat to focus the cone of the flame onto the inner edge of the ID of the drilled hole and heat till it just starts to turn red - then retry the easy out. Not that bad of job!

Hope this helps!

Puc

[Flyinfool]

IF you can find them, use left hand drill bits to drill out the stud, I have found that often the drill bit will catch and spin the stud out before you ever get to the easy out. I bought a set of easy outs and then bought all of the correct drills in left hand to keep with the set of easy outs.

[WildBill1]

Left hand carbide bits work great for this purpose but they are expensive.