Well what should have been an easy 1 day job is turning into an absolute nightmare! I mean really, what's so hard about this?

I got the axles off fine, put and greased the new outer CVs I bought, cleaned and repacked the inners. Except the second outer CV refused to get the snap ring on right, so I had to take it back apart 3 times until it got in right. Finally it did, by that time last night it was dark already. I got both axles back on the car, bolts snugged in, ready to torque this morning. That brings it up to a 3 day job. Of course the 10 minutes left on this job of torquing wouldn't be the end. On the second to the last bolt of the job it SNAPPED OFF in the hole! I have no clue how the hell I'm gonna get that out of there. But obviously it means I get to take that thing back off AGAIN. Everytime I mess with those bolts I feel like I'm gonna strip them out. I imagine I will to a few before I'm done just to add extra aggravation to it. So my car sits on the lift for ANOTHER day. I'm way too pissed to go work on it now. All the other hassles didn't bother me but I was SO READY to drive it today so I'm not too happy right now. I know I'll do more damage if I work on it pissed off. So it's time to get in my crappy Mustang and go to the beach and forget about this crap for today. ugh

<Rant off>

 

are you using a torque wrench? you only want to do about 30 pounds on these.
Also i found that one of the bolt extractors that you drill down the center of the bolt and hammer in, then wrench the punch out, it will work. These are pretty soft bolts so it isnt too hard, just make sure you use a punch and make a starting divit for the drill. if you screw up the surface messing with the drill itll be tough to do anything with it. If you take off the tranny side of the cv, you can probably slide the whole shaft off that broken one, as the cv bolts only screw into the wheel and the tranny, not into the cv's themselves. the cv's just have a straight through hole.

Good luck!

 

Dave, sorry you've had so much trouble. Did you use new bolts? It's best that you do, because they take quite a bit of stress.

Devon is right about the torque wrench. I hope you're using one! And another thing, it's a good idea to use Loctite on the bolt threads, too. I didn't and it was barely a month or so of rough driving before a bolt backed out!

You're going to have to drill the cracked bolt out.

 

Yes I was using a torque wrench, and I had all new bolts. Which I have to order again because I'm not confident that the rest of these bolts might not snap off or round off too before I'm done. I guess the car will have to sit another week or so until I feel like messing with it again. After what a pain it was to get those things in and out I'm going to have to recover some patience before I attack it again.

There's only about 1/4 of the bolt stuck in the hole, so I imagine I can slide the whole thing off of that to get to it easier. I just hope it's big enough to get a grab on with the bolt extractor. I'm gonna use a different torque wrench next time just in case that's a screwed up factor. Thanks guys.

Already my day has gotten worse though. I couldn't find my keys to my Mustang that have the remote on them, so I went to Wal-Mart using the spare key. Locked the car, got out, went in and bought some stuff, came out, key in door, open door. Alarm starts going off. WTF. Get in, car won't start, alarm won't shut off. Eventually it shuts off, car is dead. So I sit there for a few mins and call my dad, he says get out and try disconnecting the battery. So I open the door and it starts going off again. By this time there's about 50 old people that see a 20 year old messing with a car, giving me glares like I'm stealing the thing. Also somebody had done something in the store so there were some cops there too. Great. Luckily nobody actually came up anf bothered me cuz I was already pissed enough. I get back in the car, eventually the alarm stops. I turnt he ignition on, still won't start. I roll the windows down and put the key in the driver lock, turn it, still nothing. So I climb out the window and go to the passenger side, put the key in the lock and unlock it, climb back in driver side window, car starts, I leave. It wasn't even 9 am by this point and I've already had a ridiculous day! I wonder what else is gonna happen?! lol.

 

You didn't confuse the Ft/lbs scale with the N/m scale on your torque wrench, did you?

 

No it was definately Ft. Lbs. It didn't feel like I was putting too much torque on the thing, but I guess I was. The Craftsman torque wrenches we have have always seemed a little weird. Either that or it was a defective bolt, but either way I'm replacing all 24 bolts again. I don't need to worry about it while I'm doing 130 at a DE!

 

Make sure there is no grease on the threads of the bolts or in the bolt holes. This lubrication will tend to give you more bolt stretch (or clamp load, if you prefer) for a given torque reading. The end result is a bolt that may stretch or, worse, snap off.

Good luck with the rest of your day. It sounds like it can only get better.

 

Actually, torque-specs are usually for a bolt lubricated with oil. You want the torque-wrench to read bolt-stretch (which results in clamping tension), rather than friction in the threads. Just imagine if you had a tonne of grit and sand in your threads, you'd get 30 ft•lbs easily, but there won't be any tension on the CV at all and you'd snap the bolts from shear.

One tip on using triple-square tools, grind off about 1mm from the ends! This makes the tapered tip fit tighter into the bolt-head and the sharp corners will bite in better as well.

 

BINGO! That's what I did.

 

I'm going to have to remember that trick Danno! Seeing as I'll be removing and replacing every one of those bolts again. This assuming I don't set fire to the car before I get the broken bolt out. I didn't have the patience to go back to it today...maybe later this week. A few days of driving that Mustang around will motivate me to get the S2 back on the road pretty quick!

 

oh yeah. my 944 blew its heater hose and my moms jeep cherokee laredo is like that. i took the wrong set of keys (the remote doestn work on that one) locked the doors, went in school, an by the way i park right in front of the school, right near classrooms, and i come out during lunch an dmy alarm goes off beeping the horn, flashing the lights, right into my physics teachers class that sh ehad at the time. :-O turn the key, car would turn on for 2 seconds and shut off.

unfortunately had to have my frined drive me home to get the other keys, and drive me back to school.

fun times.

 

Guess I've been lucky. I've never broken or stripped one of these bolts. But I can attest to the fact the the retaining clips can be a real pain.

 

One of my CVs would fall apart when I accidentally twisted it too far. Of course, it would do this AFTER it was on the shaft and loaded with grease. What a **** off.

I managed to round off two bolts. I was hoping I could half *** it with a torx bit. I learnt my lesson, then learnt it a few more times getting the rounded ones out. Craftsmen Bolt-Outs are godly, but they wont help your bolt.

I suggest using the brake disc cleaner, its pressurized in the can so you get a REAL good blast that removed all the gunk fast.

 

Theedge,

Did the Craftsman Bolt-outs work and destroy the bolt in the process or are they ineffective in removing the broken bolt at all.

I was going to purchase them to help Dave120 remove his damaged bolts...I'm his manual labor (aka Dad).

Thanks,

Fred

 

The bolt-outs need the head of the bolt to work, so they wont help him unless he can get the axle off first, in which case he could prolly just use pliers anyway.

I highly suggest picking up a set anyway, in case other bolts strip or round off. I spent hours trying to get the rounded off CV joint bolts out, finally went out and bought the 13 pc set, came home, tapped #8 on with a hammer, turned it with a wrench, voila. Great around the house too.

I think what he needs to do is either get the axle off with the snapped on in place (I honestly dont know if this is possbile) or youll need the other bolt extracters, IIRC theyre called Easy-Outs. They look like a funky drill bit that you drill into the bolt shaft then they bring it all out as you crank them back with a wrench.