Hi, I am having some trouble with a snapped thermostat bolt on my 1996 ranger with the 3.0, maybe I can have some advice about how to proceed...

It was almost flush snapped off, I filed it flat, punched the middle, started a hole small then went up to 5/16". Bolt is m8-1.25 x 18.

Due to space and drill size I could only make about a 1/2, maybe 3/4 inch hole at the most. Got the easy out tapped in, started turning, but eventually started popping out too easily no matter how I hammered it. No mechanics in my area use tap and dies if needed (I'm in Mexico) and I was advised welding the bolt is the best option. I can call a welder to help, but is the bolt too far gone to be welded? Any tips for that? (photo included)

Thank you

 

Welder's gonna be here in 30 minutes. Was hoping for an opinion by then, but let's roll the dice and see what happens.. I hit it with some wd40 to help a little.

edit: they didn't show up, so i'm looking for another now.

 

I have, when in a real jam, successfully drilled broke bolts out to where I could use a pick to pull out the remaining bolt threads from the hole. You need a drill bit that is real close to the inner diameter that wont take out the threads.

 

Thanks for the tip.

The bits I have wouldn't be long enough to get through that far.

Somebody came over, attempted to weld another bolt on top. It didn't adhere well and he said something about a different kind of solder being needed. So now instead of a clean hole in the middle I have more surface sticking out.

I have a mechanic acquaintance with a tap and die set. They seem confident to tap out the threads and we'll make it 9mm. Hope it goes well....

 

Exactly what you're doing is how you're going to get it out. It usually takes plenty of trial and error before you find the right combination to get it out.

 

Thanks, I'll keep trying, but it's looking pretty grim, the fellow with the tap and die set didn't give me the answers nor confidence to proceed correctly, so i went out, grabbed some left handed drill bits, no luck with those, even with pb blaster setting on it for 24 hours. The hole is not perfect now, bits of solder prevented me from re-drilling perfectly in the center. Then, the 6'' multi purpose 5/32 milwaukee bit I had bought for this job lost its teeth at the tip. No matter how much I try, I can't drill any deeper even though I know there is still more bolt there.

So I nailed that damn spiral extractor in, it isn't perfectly straight, but it definitely has grip now,. I have been giving it patience all day with the pb blaster, wiggling it, hammering it some, trying to break it free, trying not to break the tip off inside, but still nothing.

I'll let the pb blaster sit in there overnight, i'll go give it another dose or two before calling it a night.

Tomorrow I'll spend all day trying to break it free. Gonna hook up the heat gun and heat it up as well, since I think I accidentally put blue threadlocker on the bolts instead of anti seize.. whoops!

Hopefully there isn't anything there that can be damaged by the heat. I will try to avoid those sensor wires and whatnot.

 

Well, that was a total crapshoot. Due to all the failed attempts to remove the bolt, I am now left with this mess.

The bolt and thread is now mickeymoused to oblivion, I called a shop in America and they want to replace the intake manifold ($650 in labor, I'd have to pull the manifold from a junk yard, plus $300 in getting a tow across the border).

Open to other ideas or suggestions, I am extremely disappointed that I'm about to spend over $1k just because of one F'in bolt. But that is really all I am left with now.

 

At this point your only other option is a helicoil kit, but that has to be done properly or else it won't work.

 

Use the next size larger diameter bolt. Use a step bit to enlarge the hole in the thermostat housing. Not unusual at all for those thin bolts to be broken off. I drilled and tapped both holes on a couple of different Vulcans when I replaced the thermostat. I went with stainless steel bolts with antisieze compound.