Smitje 928

'87 S4 auto

I'm preparing my car for a repaint, and am in the middle of stripping the doors. On the driver's side I've so far removed the doorguard, window motor and lifting mechanism, wire harness and the rubber window seal on the inside of the door.

Unfortunately when trying to remove the second felt pad my allen wrench snapped, leaving the head of the wrench in the bolt.....


Now I'm trying to get the glass out, but unfortunately it won't fit through the gap (the metal bracket gets stuck on the inside).

Any thoughts?

Smitje 928

Mrmerlin

I would suggest that you not use those Ball tools for final tightening or breaking loose any of these allen bolts .
This is a surefire way to damage the head of the bolt and or snap off the ball of the tool.
To get the broken tool out get a small punch and tap the tool bit in a few different directions,
then use a magnet and it should come out

Smitje 928

Smitje 928

It took a couple of hours fiddling and drilling but she's out! A few days of torture, patience, 5 broken drills but they were worth it! At first I tried a magnet and some WD40 as lube, but that didn't give enough momentum to overcome the resistance the head had inside the bolt. In the end I had to drill a hole between the head of the wrench and the inside of the bolt (basically ending up drilling in the bolt as the material was slightly softer than the broken head of the Allen wrench). When the hole was deep enought I was able to get a small hook behind the head and pop it out.

Luckily I then could still get a normal allen wrench in and loosen the bolt.







And now on with the rest of the door.....

.