Help broke LBJ bolt with torque wrench.

[Calloway]

So I was replacing the LBJ and tightening the bolts with a torque wrench but one of them snapped.

A bit is sticking up a little in the steering knuckle.

Any recommendations to pull the rest of the bolt out?

I was going to try and use vice grips and continue "tightening" so it will come from the top rather than disconnecting the LBJ and trying to use an extractor from the bottom.

Any recommendations?

Will try and post pic but was having issues.

TIA!

Ken

 

[Bad Luck]

So I was replacing the LBJ and tightening the bolts with a torque wrench but one of them snapped.

A bit is sticking up a little in the steering knuckle.

Any recommendations to pull the rest of the bolt out?

I was going to try and use vice grips and continue "tightening" so it will come from the top rather than disconnecting the LBJ and trying to use an extractor from the bottom.

Any recommendations?

Will try and post pic but was having issues.

TIA!

Ken

Best bet would be to remove the lower control arm and try to use a left handed drill bit to remove it. Just my $0.02

 

[JohnMc]

Best bet would be to remove the lower control arm and try to use a left handed drill bit to remove it. Just my $0.02

Agreed. It's clean threads going up to there, but not (very) clean threads where it broke. More likely to come out cleanly going down.

Any idea on why it broke? Were these new bolts, or the original ones?

I normally don't worry too much about reusing old bolts, but these are so critical because of the failure mode (as is the LBJ itself) that I always use new bolts when replacing the LBJ.

 

[Calloway]

So finally able to load pic.

These are new oem bolts with new ball joints.

So so far looks like reversing back out is best bet.

My torque wrench might be on the fritz. I had issues before where even with the wrench I was over tightening bolts and I know how important the torques specs are for LBJs. Already ordered a new one.

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[Calloway]

Actually, what about trying to cut a slot in the middle of the bolt so I can use a screw driver to screw it back out?

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[heat]

There are two different spec bolts used on the LBJs, depending on year.
They have very different torque ratings, you may have bumped into that.
Hard to tell, since you don't list your vehicle in your sig.

Here's Tim's write-up.

Basically:

Here's the part numbers for the two different style bolts
1996-2000 use a flanged bolt, part #90080-10066
2001-2002 use a bolt with a washer (it's a little longer than the 1996-2000 bolts), part #90119-10933.

The #90080-10066 bolts are suppose to be torqued to 59 ft-lbf
The #90119-10933 bolts have a lower tensile strength and should only be torqued to 37 ft-lbf.

 

[Devbot]

Actually, what about trying to cut a slot in the middle of the bolt so I can use a screw driver to screw it back out?

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If it had such little resistance that it could be turned with a screwdriver I highly doubt it would've stripped out in the first place
When you say stripped, do you mean you snapped the head or merely rounded it off? If the latter I don't see why you couldn't weld a nut to it

 

[phattyduck]

The #90080-10066 bolts are suppose to be torqued to 59 ft-lbf
The #90119-10933 bolts have a lower tensile strength and should only be torqued to 37 ft-lbf.

They have the same tensile strength, but the different washer design (flange head vs. separate washer) require different torque values to achieve the same clamping force.

The longer ones with the separate washer use a separate washer to avoid spinning the metal spacer in the ball joint shield used on the 01/02 ball joints.

-Charlie

 

[Brian.]

If it had such little resistance that it could be turned with a screwdriver I highly doubt it would've stripped out in the first place
When you say stripped, do you mean you snapped the head or merely rounded it off? If the latter I don't see why you couldn't weld a nut to it

Look at post #1... he said it Snapped off (and then showed a photo with the head sheared clean off).

That's 100% a case of removing the other bolts, dropping the LCA (with ball joint attached, or separate it if clearance is needed) and then trying to back it out. You Should have plenty of thread to grab with pliers/vice grips, if not then flatten the end, use a punch and a left-hand (reverse) drill bit to see if that'll catch and back it out. If not, then Perhaps an EZ-out (though they always cause me more headache than success). The path you choose depends entirely on what tool you can get on the remaining threads and what tools you have available. For instance, I have never welded anything...

 

[Bad Luck]

I'd be worried about trying to weld a nut to it since the lower control arm and the bolt are both iron/steel. It's not like welding a nut on a broken bolt/stud in an aluminum head.

 

[Ghostrider]

Really hoping those were not new OEM bolts. Even missing the torque by 50% shouldn't snap a new OEM bolt. if these were factory originals I guess 20 years of use might make them more prone but that still scares me a lot unless they were really corroded or something.

 

[T4topher]

Actually, what about trying to cut a slot in the middle of the bolt so I can use a screw driver to screw it back out?

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Worth a shot if you have a little dremel tool or something IMO.. I’d try this before removing the LBJ/LCA.. Since the head of the bolt is gone the torque/resistance might be gone too. If it doesn’t work then your still in the same boat anyways..

 

[Calloway]

Really hoping those were not new OEM bolts. Even missing the torque by 50% shouldn't snap a new OEM bolt. if these were factory originals I guess 20 years of use might make them more prone but that still scares me a lot unless they were really corroded or something.

Yup. These were new bolts from toyotapartsdeal.

They are the ones that should be torqued to 57 ft lbs. But I def think my torque wrench is not working correctly and I really overtightened them

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[RandyBobandy]

If your torque wrench is so far out of spec that it sheared that bolt off you really need to take all the bolts out and start over with new ones, even though the others didn’t shear off they’re probably way over torqued and in danger of breaking while you’re driving

 

[Devbot]

Look at post #1... he said it Snapped off (and then showed a photo with the head sheared clean off).

Oops sorry I must've skimmed over the part where he said snapped :banplease:
This is all very curious to me cause when I was doing my LBJs last year I also had a single one of those bolts never hit torque, just kept tightening and tightening - and I stopped fearing this exact thing would happen. If this is the driver's side wheel, then it would've been in the same spot... hmmm :suspicious:
I heavily agree with Randy's statement above too, it's something to think about. That wrench would've had to go to hell and back to be that far off and you definitely would've noticed it happening long before it got to that point

 

[FD7683]

Torque wrench has to either be out of calibration to do this, went ham on the bolts, or you used the wrong torque spec. First time seeing a new LBJ bolt shear off - scary.

 

[brillo_76]

Just curious if you started these bolts by hand before spinning these down to be torqued with a torque wrench. [ Just verifying cross threading didn't occur]

If they were fine before the torquing down I throw that torque wrench away.


All the users suggestions are good. I would replace the bolts like Randy suggested just to be on the safe side.

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[Romeo1]

Remove the ball joint. You’ll be able to use a vise grip to unscrew the broken bolt l, now a stud, with the new LBJ out of the way.

You would have to really be reefing on it to break those bolts. Dang.

 

[pluton]

Clicker-type torque wrenches go out of calibration, whether they are expensive or cheap, whether you use them often or not. The beam type, while less convenient and unusable in some physical situations, do not have this problem.

 

[rickmum]

Same thing happened to me. I used a pair of vice grips on the portion sticking out the top and got the bolt out the way you were thinking.