ALEV8

Saga continuing, plus broken lower-most pulley bolt. Now what the F do I do? Extractor, dealership, weld to it? Am I nuts to try?

dc2000

Have a picture? Be very careful if you're going to drill it out yourself. Is there a lot of resistance holding the broken bolt in? If so, doubt an extractor will work.

jchapura

Alex, which of these?

dgjks6

Can you get the pulley off? Can you grind off the head of the bolt, remove the pulley/bearing, then remove the bolt with a pair of vice grips?

Or did the bolt break on the block?

ALEV8

I just peeked at it. It's an UPPER yellow idler pulley next to the tensioner. I can snap a pic but it's in plan sight at a 30 degree angle down into the engine compartment. The xzn stud snapped just below the deck of the block maybe 3/16". I'd remove the bumper and the engine bracing to get full on perpendicular to remove the bolt. All pulleys and tensioner are new from Sonnen or Suncoast.

Or send to Porsche.

jchapura

I think if you could get enough access with a drill or right-angle drill, I'd drill the pilot hole for an extractor and try to ease it out. If that's not successful, you need to be prepared to drill and tap it (try to find out the normal depth of the (blind) hole so you don't exceed that).

I can't imagine that the natural setup would apply enough force to snap the original bolt - the bolt must have been defective (or perhaps over torqued?).

ALEV8

I was really careful about torque but you never know. I'm wondering how hard that bolt is and I have both drills you mention, remove rear bumper?

neanicu

Looking at that pic,there's plenty left on the outside to grab it with locking vice grip pliers and spin it out. Use large ones for maximum leverage and lock them good. You'll spin it right out!

jchapura

I'm not sure removing the bumper cover or bumper will really buy you anything. On my car, it looks like the vertical centerline of the pulley bolt is above the elevation of the "tray" (that's in the engine compartment) that's at the elevation of the covered bumper. Certainly, you'll need to remove the airbox. And it looks like you'd have room for the drill on the rearward side of block. I think there'd be enough room to be able to get a centerpunch in there to be able center the pilot hole.

ALEV8

Almost not worth it. The stud is down in the block....

ALEV8

From far away but I can't get 90 degrees on that bolt.

StormRune

A guy over on 6speedonline had the same thing happen about two weeks ago. You might want to check with him on how he has handled this. He hasn't posted any follow-up in the thread recently, but maybe he'll respond if you ping him on the thread or via PM. See http://www.6speedonline.com/forums/9...tensioner.html

semicycler

Ouch. You will definitely need to drill a pilot hole for a screw extractor. Worst case you are looking at drilling the whole broken bolt piece out then inserting something like a helicoil thread repair kit being extra careful not to drill too deep into the block. Accessibility will be the biggest issue.

I'm pretty sure there is an access hole to at least one of the idler pulleys from the rear. Remove your rear license plate, there might be a hole behind it in addition to the rear tow hook hole. If not then try removing the rear poly bumper, and the metal safety bumper frame behind the poly bumper. it's pretty easy to do. I have my fingers crossed that you can get that broken bolt out and repaired without lowering or dropping the engine completely.

edit: the access hole might only be for the 997.2

ALEV8

Yeah or just let pros do it.

rbennett

If you end up drilling it out, look at this website http://www.timesert.com
I ended up breaking 2 end plate bolts off into my 930 block and this kit saved me.