I bought a friends 92 Legacy that he was proud to say never saw any maintenance. It shows...I'm trying to catch up and I noticed where all/most of the bolts are rusty. In the process of taking out the radiator/fan assembly I managed to break off 2 bolts. These things broke with ease. I want to examine the timing belt and I'm coming across the same situation. Once I get the 10mm box end wrench [I'm not using power or sockets on these and it takes a little doing to get the box end on] they break loose kind of easy. About a third of the way out they get tight and then just break. I have visions of angle drills and easy outs drilling into the motor and I'd really like to avoid that. How can I get these things out without shearing them off. I'm spraying them pretty good with a penetrating oil [PB Blaster] which is non water based. Any ideas?
Rusted Bolts
Dec 30, 2003
2 Replies
One way that I have seen this done is to get in there with a welder and weld a nut onto the exposed end. Sometimes even a short pipe nipple over the end and weld it in. Then you have a pipe to grip on. Another is a stud puller.Sears has a new set of easy outs that are supposed to work on rounded bolt heads. Maybe you could get a small on the broken bolt end.
Next time maybe hose the bolts down with some WD-40 or similar solvent. Then hit the end of the bolt with a hammer a few times. Then spray a little more, wait a while, and then start turning it out. Stop, turn it in, then turn it out. repeat nice a easy till its out.
Good luck... Bill
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