Quote:
Originally Posted by jonfasch
QUESTION – The biggest issue left is that broken bolt stud in the Driver Lower Ball Joint Assembly. It’s the rear outside one – and I don’t know what to do to get it out.
Thoughts???
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The normal methods...
If there's any thread remaining, penetrating oil, heat, tapping with a hammer and then vice-grips.
If there's no thread remaining to grab, then center-punching the broken bit, penetrating oil, heat and either a normal drill if the thread passes all the way through (I can't remember if there's access to the back side) or a Reverse drill bit if you can only get at it from the one side.
If it doesn't come out with the reverse drill bit (or you can't find one), then you're getting into "EZ-out" territory. I've used them but don't like to. Depending on how centered you've managed to drill the hole, a better option might be to just drill out as large as possible First. That means a larger EZ-out, which are harder to break...
But if you break one, you're SOL. So the decision to just drill out to the right size and tap might be next. Generally speaking, you'd want to go the next size up for the tap to have clean metal, but then you get into oddness of fastener sizes. You could get back to the right thread sizes with a Time Sert or Helicoil.
I think those bolts are 1-time use, so you might want to consider ordering 3 more while you deal with this. I'd just re-use the ones you've got for the time being, just no hardcore wheeling, yeah?
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'99 Limited 4x4, Millenium Silver ~
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