Today I finished with the cup brush and started on the more inaccessible locations with other instruments at my disposal. I had my first disappointment with the new frame: both the center skid plate bolts had been broken off in their weld-nuts. I want my skid-plate so this needed to be fixed.
I see many posters complain about exactly this and they rarely get a detailed answer on how to deal with it. I had my camera ready so here goes:
The problem:
The solution:
1. Baptize bolt thread with PB Blaster then grind top flat to make it easier to drill.
2. Grab your handy dandy left-hand drill bits:
You can use right hand drills and it will work but the left twist has two advantages:
-many times it will twist the broken bolt out all by itself and you're done
-if not, it still helps loosen it up so it comes out easier with the extractor. Both of these twisted right out.
3. Drill a small starter hole as well centered as you can:
4. Pick your next bit size so it is as large as it can be but will not hit the threads. Angle the hole back towards center slightly to better protect the threads. Insert extractor.
5. Remove bolt.
6.Check threads with new bolt. Voilà (or walla, in internetspeak), one clean bolthole.