Drewster67

Well, took a trip to Harbor freight. What a friggin zoo on Saturdays. Bare Shelves, angry customers and the poor check out girl ...........

Any Hoot, here are the new additions to my tool collection. Hope they work.

BTW - For all peices, 40 peice Tap, The sharpening blocks, the Extractor set - 37.00 out the door. Not Bad Not bad at all - Oh and Yes, the tap set is metric!

Question, for the tap set?. I have no idea how to work the circle thingamajigs. For those in the know, can you help those who aren't!

Red UFO

Good set Drew.

With that set you can make male or female ends quite easily when you know how to use it. I recomend a cheap $20 drill bit set so you can drill the rest of the bolts out. Then use that set you just got to do the 'finishing' end so to speak.

My job today turned out like ****. I replaced the parts after I pulled the pod, but found my real problem is the steering locking device is broke and its why everything else went to **** on my steering column. I took pics of all that and will make a separate thread.

Man what a nightmare its turning out, I have some allen bolts that are stripping (get your torque wrench) so I might have to drill them out. Then I, never mind I'll save it for when I post pics, it sucks. I also broke my tilt steering because that little ball bearing popped out when I was trying to take apart the silver column behind the turn switches and I don't have the 'nitrogliceorin making' hands to put it back together. If it ain't onething its another.

I'll need another thread and Jim Bailey's help on this one.

Bill Ball

Be very careful with the taps. Be certain you have drilled and removed ALL of any bolt before you run in the tap.. I thought I had with my broken WP bolt. I was happily tapping away when "snap!" I knew I was in deep doodoo. Tungsten carbide tap broken off below the surface. Various drills were ineffective against tungsten carbide. I recieved all kinds of sage advice from the list. Finally, the job of removing the tap was accomplished in a little more than an hour using 2 diamond tipped Dremel bits. Turns out I had drilled the old bolt a little off center and there was a crescent of bolt that caught the tap.

Same caution with the typical EZ-out extractors. The are famous for snapping. I would prefer to use lefthand drill bits. They aren't subject to the same stresses.

Sorry, if this is a lecture you already have heard. I wish I had heard it before I snapped the tap.

GlenL

Those are "dies" so you've got a Tap and Die set. The typical use is to clean and straighten threads on bolts. Just make sure to match size and pitch.

Drewster67

Cool, thanks for helping me out.

Red, sorry to hear about that. Anything I may do to help out.

BB - Keep on Keepin On doin what your doin. Advice and direction never go out of style!

Thanks again to all.

Gregg K

A dental pick, and a magnifying glass might help in picking out the old bolt threads. There is no such thing as drilling perfectly in the center, so you will have a half moon of threads somewhere, like Bill said. I even find that if I drill just enough, I can use the pick, and then a sharp punch to slowly bend and fold the remaining bolt, and then pull parts out with fine needle nose pliers.
Tungsten carbide. Aaaaaaarrrrrhhhhggggg.
Another little tidbit. There are things that are sold to remove broken taps. But you don't even want to go there.
Oh, another tid. IF you break a tap, there is also acid that can be put in the hole to eat the tap out. I might be smoking on that one, for aluminum. The idea is to use acid that doesn't eat aluminum, but does eat steel. Sorry, too lazy to look it up. If you need help, I can go scrounge for that one.

Drewster67

Yeah, mag glass - good Idea. We were using a mirror to see into the thread directly (An extra RV mirror from my parts car). I almost bought the carbide bits today but something told me not too.

I'll update the thread tomorrow.

Happy Motoring.......

Drewster67

Well, as soon as I break into the garage and resume work, I'll be sure to let everyone know. They should do the job w/out issue but just in case I did buy the diamond sharpening blocks.

Wednesday is the planned day to resume work. Until then, Happy Motoring. Thanks to all.

Jim @ EuroWerks

For what its worth in extreme cases I have (to get out broken taps or EZ outs) taken a smaller bit and drilled around the bolt to let it drop out. Then make a one off timesert. Take an M10 bolt drill the hole and tap for this thread M6 thru the center. Cut off the amount of bolt you need drill and tap the block for this M10 and install. Be careful and make sure there is enough material before drilling and blasting!Good luck!

Lagavulin

This has been one informative thread on bolt extraction! I hope I never have to use any of the techniques though...

Good luck Drew!

heinrich

You'll never break a tap if you follow the directions, ie 1) drill right; 2) use cutting oil; 3) Tap -> back off and lose dead thread -> tap -> back off etc etc ....

Now all this brings to mind ... I lay awake last night worrying .... I go out and buy a Porsche, but the entire engine has been tapped, drilled, helicoiled to shreds. Head bolts; a-arms; gearbox mounts, cam caps; bearing caps ... AAARRRGGHHHHH what a nightmare! :-)

G Man

Just my 2 cents worth. If the bolts don't go all the way through the block you should use what is called a bottoming tap. It is a little different shape than a tap you would use on a hole that goes all the way through your block. Hope that helps.

Bill Ball

True. However, in the case of the WP bolts, but perhaps not the tensioner bolts, the holes are 17MM deep and the bolts only goes 9 or 10MM deep, at least in my 89 S4. So, a bottom tap is not needed for them.

Drewster67

I was wondering about the length. I found that the the tensioner has a 62mm, 55mm and 45mm bolts (or am I wrong 8.8x62, 8.8X55 and so forth, are in CM?). IS it safe to say that they go to the end. 62 mm is the one that has a bolt on the end - no worries there

Before you shake your head, I'm working w/PO bolts so I have no idea if they were the correct lengths and I have yet to measure my existing bolts.

I wanted to make sure I pulled the broken bolts before I ordered the new ones from mark.

Thanks Bill and Gman for bringing even more light onto this dark territory.

Thsi site is the best thing since sliced Bread!

T-minus 7hrs and 20 minutes before I'm off for 72 and some change. Like a surgeon, I'm going to need some steady hands. God Help me. LOL

Drewster67

Hello everyone. I just wanted to give you a heads up as to my progress. Well, my progress is .....slow. I have been "extra" cautious and have taken my time. I have one more bolt to go.

I will say this, I have a new found respect for the techs that do this on a day to day basis. Mind you, I don't have air tools or a high tech tool but still, this is more difficult than I ever imagined. (virgin solo trip)

Once it's all said and done, I'll post some new pics.

The rigid extractor set works well ....... but then again, Im only comparing them to chro-moly set I purchased previously. (which Sucked)

Thom, I was on that path to purchase all new bolts. Since Ive gone this far, why not take it a step further. Thats good advice!

This what Im planning on ordering.

All new tensioner bolts
All new H2O Bolts
Tensioner gasket
WaterPump Gasket
Tensioner Boot - The "new" one I put on 6 months ago already has a slight tear in it.

What I will be reusing.

WaterPump - Less than 6 months old
All rollers - Less than 1 year old
Nylon Bushings - good
Idler Roller Bolt - Less than 1 year old

Off hand thats all I can think of, any suggestions?.


Thanks again for everyones help!