Remove bumper bracket bolt

Anyone got a good idea on how to rep move a broken bolt from the frame? It’s one that holds a bumper bracket. So it needs to come out. Would a left handed drill bit work?

 

Clean some of that corrosion off with a wire brush. Spray that thing with PB Blaster Penetrating Catalyst and let it soak 5-10 minutes and repeat a few times. Then grab it with some vice grips and try to get it out. E-Z outs and left hand drill bits work easier with a lot less stub, plus, with enough stub to grab with vice grips, that’s easier anyway. Start with vice grips. If it breaks off or wear down to stub without coming out, then yes a left handed drill bit is a start, but probably won’t get it. Try not to go all the way through! Just get 3/8”-1/2” deep. Then use a left handed tap. The tap will bottom out and start turning the bolt. If you drill through the bolt, then you’ll either need s left hand threaded bolt, or need to place a socket over the bolt and run the tap through the hole in the socket, tighten the ever living crap out of the tap handle and use the socket for the tap handle to bottom on and pull the bolt out. That on is hard to get to work. You need to drill deep enough to tap 5-7 threads(90-98% strength IIRC) but if you go through it does get harder. Start with vice grips!

 

Thanks! I’ll give it a shot. If nothing else works, I’ll probably just cut off the welded nut and drill out the rusted bolt. I’m definitely going to try the vice grips first.

 

Welded but? Did you weld one on, or can you reach one on the other side of that? If you have clearance to cut off the nut on the other side of that, that’s a lot easier. If you welded a nut in there, that would work even better than left handed drills and taps. I didn’t think of welding a nut on. If you didn’t weld a nut on, then I wouldn’t recommend it. You’re not SUPPOSED to weld a frame because it will ruin the heat treatment around the area you weld. You could always wrap a wet rag around the frame and hope that not enough heat would transfer through that bolt and it would most likely be fine, but I’d hate to heat up a frame just get that bolt out.

 

The bolts closest to the front on each side have a welded nut. Comes that way. This is for the bumper brackets.
I didn't weld anything, nor do I plan to. I figured I could just cut that nut off the back side of the frame and push/drill out the rest of the broken bolt that is rusted in there. Then just use a new bolt with a nut that is no longer welded on. Maybe use some jb weld if I wanted it to be secured to the frame again.

 

I have a Gen 2, so I’m not exactly sure what I’m looking at, but the advice above is how I would go about getting a broken bolt out. In the pic I can’t really tell what’s on the other side.

 

You'd be surprised what heat will do. Ive loosened similar sheared bolts with a torch and vice grips.

 

Gotch. I still appreciate the advice. I am going to give it a shot.

 

Agree with @ImBillT on method. Clean it up and coat it in penetrant and tap it a few times with a hammer to create vibrations. Try it later with vice grips, turn a little in each direction to create movement and help the penetrant. It should hopefully come out. If not, continue his recommendations.

 

Good call on tapping it a few times. Forgot to mention that. It definitely helps. I once pulled a flywheel on a tapered drive shaft(not automotive) into three pieces with a puller, without even getting the remaining part off, and was told that a pair of opposing pry bars under gentle pressure and a few mild to moderate whacks on the flywheel with a hammer would pull it right off. I seriously doubted the advice. Sure enough, it came off, and you never would have thought it would have been stuck on there either. Ever since then I don’t even mess with a puller to get stuck pulleys and flywheels off of shafts.

I mentioned a brand name penetrating oil because it is the best I’ve found. It’s quite likely that others are as good or better, but had a friend recommend it after my dad’s favorite penetrating oil had failed. I then watched him remove the most rusted pulley you ever seen from an old evaporative cooler with very little effort. Later I pulled an exhaust manifold from an old truck using it. It took some effort and I told my dad that perhaps my previous experience with my new penetrating oil choice had been a fluke. He responded “to be honest I’ve never pulled a rusted exhaust manaifold from an old truck without breaking at least one stud.” So I guess it worked pretty well! I’ve only tried two. My dad’s previous favorite, and the one I mentioned. But it has treated me very well over the past fifteen years.

 

Thank you all for the advice. Once I get some nicer weather, I will be giving it everything I've got. I'll keep this thread posted on the results.

 

So I tried the pb blaster and the vice grips. No luck.
Busted out the drill. Used three different bits to work my up to the correct size and was able to get the bolt out. Had to use a hammer and flat head screw driver to loosen up what was left of the bolt after drilling it, but i got the job done.
Didn’t have to remove the nut off the frame either.

 

Glad to hear it all worked out.

 

Good deal. It’s a shame it was in there too good for vice grips. I hate drilling bolts!

 

I do too. Luckily I had just bought a new Irwin cobalt bit set. Went through fairly easy. Wasn’t the ideal process but it worked. Thanks again for the advice.

 

weld a hex head onto it and throw a socket on it?

 

Make sure you get yourself a set of left-hand drill bits. They’re special, in that they are fluted to cut in the opposite direction of normal bits - the same direction as unscrewing. It is like having a drill bit and extraction set in one - well worth it. Again, glad everything worked out...semi-painlessly.

 

Thanks. I have a set, but they are small. The largest bit is a 19/64 I think. May have worked, but I didn’t want to take a chance on messing it up on a thicker bolt.

 

Yep, the only other tool I like is the Irwin BoltGrip set. It’s essentially the same as vice-grips, but great for gnarled/rusted bolt heads.

 

I have that set too. I didn’t think about trying on the broken bolt. Idk if it would have grabbed it or not. I haven’t had to use the set in so long, that I forgot I had it.