68 mustang with broken thermostat bolt into manifold

just thought of this one and might want to give it a try.. you say the vice grips dont hold onto the broken bolt that sticks out... this is what i did years ago with a small plug into the intake manifold on a 66 mustang.. the plug was for maybe the exhaust gases to go back to the choke on the carb to warm it up???? anyway i could not get this plug to move at all.. i stripped the head on it with the vicegrips.. so it filed it down to fit into a 1/4 in. drive socket(i believe it was a 1/4 or 3/8 in. socket and i then beat it onto the plug head.. the socket cracked, but head onto the plug and i used a 1/4 to 3/8 in. adapter to use the

3/8 in drive 18 in. breaker bar to get it going.. about a year later i got the socket off of the plug and brought it back to sears(it was a craftsman) so it did not cost me anything to get a new one... if that dont work, you might want to try a very small pipe wrench with the teeth into the bolt stub and see if that works... i find that anytime i broke a bolt it was because i had it too tight from an earlier repair.... also make sure when turning the wrench that it is exactly 90 degrees from the center of the bolt and not on an angle as you want all the force to go into turning the bolt and not forcing the head onto an angle and have it break... i did this with alot of lug nut that were the cap type(the nut covered the theaded stud).... used one of those cheap 60 deg. angle tire tools and just shoved down to break it and the lug would snap off.... the same will happen with any bolt if not actually putting the force into a circle to remove the bolt... hope this makes sense and helps.
Reply to
jim
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jim opined in news: snipped-for-privacy@noname.com:

Mmmmm Yes, those should come with a warning tag on them. Most wrench-lovers learn this at an early age, and then ALWAYS steady lug tools and ANY socket tool with the other hand. Just to keep the force on-axis.

I can see how novices might not think of it.

Reply to
Backyard Mechanic

wrench-lovers

Yep... Definitely an important thing to steady your tools... My friend used to wrench like that, carelessly, after rounding off a few bolts he learned to listen to me.

On the other hand I've used one of them lug nut wrenches that aren't at 90* angle at a junk yard to get the wheel off a car to get to the drums and spindle. Them nuts were on there _real_ good. It was tricky at first as I was lodging a piece of exhaust pipe into the tire to keep it from turning, then I figured what the hey, let me see if the brakes still work... Miraculously they did, and they got jammed on real good and wouldn't release. :) So I started jumping on the lug wrench, which didn't break it loose. Now I'm no heavyweight, I'm a scrawny 180 lb 6'3.5" guy who's started developing a round stomach (gotta exercise, this belly runs in the family!) but I don't suppose I'm feather light either. So holding onto the fender and jumping on the wrench wouldn't do it, so I had my step-dad who is over 200 lbs get on it with me and with the two of us jumping on the wrench we were able to break loose the nuts. Not all of them were that hard, but a few were. Amazingly between my 180 lbs and his 250+ lbs we didn't strip the nuts or break the studs using the cheapo lug wrench. The wrench was bending a good bit though, and twisting after the bend. LOL We thought we were gonna snap it.

Reply to
Cory Dunkle

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