1979 L345DT
What's that old saying... every 20 min job is one broken bolt away from being an 8 hour ordeal or something like that... well.. this is why I HATE trying to extract broken bolts!
The bolt broke off when I was tearing things down on the engine and I'm finally back to the point of getting thing back together again. I put some penetrating oil on it the last few days, put some MAPP gas on it to heat it good and tapped it all with a mallet to help break the rust loose. Got about 1/4 turn out of it with vice grips (didn't have an extractor small enough) wiggling it back and forth and keeping it nice and toasty... it made it about 1/2 a turn then broke off mostly flush with the housing.
Ok plan B... got out my interior extractors... drilled the bolt out, again added some more heat to it and gently tapped the extractor into place and using a little 6mm wrench on the extractor started gently wiggling and crack... FML... Broke the ear off of the thermostat housing and cracked down the side of the neck. If it was just the ear I could possibly try to weld it back and then drill/tap it but with the long crack running down the inside and outside of the neck I fear it's not salvageable.
Checked around and saw that it didn't appear to be part of the front structure so yay that gave me hope! Removed 5 bolts and a nut just to find out there's not enough clearance to remove thermostat housing because of the stud that's to the drivers side of the water pump housing which is on the... front structure...
Has anyone successfully removed that stud using double nut method? That seems to be the only way I can fathom to MAYBE pull this off without having to crack it apart and pull the engine out to get everything out of the way enough to remove the front cover. I normally don't have much luck with the double nut method but wanted to see if anyone has either done it or has any other ideas/suggestions?
What's that old saying... every 20 min job is one broken bolt away from being an 8 hour ordeal or something like that... well.. this is why I HATE trying to extract broken bolts!
The bolt broke off when I was tearing things down on the engine and I'm finally back to the point of getting thing back together again. I put some penetrating oil on it the last few days, put some MAPP gas on it to heat it good and tapped it all with a mallet to help break the rust loose. Got about 1/4 turn out of it with vice grips (didn't have an extractor small enough) wiggling it back and forth and keeping it nice and toasty... it made it about 1/2 a turn then broke off mostly flush with the housing.
Ok plan B... got out my interior extractors... drilled the bolt out, again added some more heat to it and gently tapped the extractor into place and using a little 6mm wrench on the extractor started gently wiggling and crack... FML... Broke the ear off of the thermostat housing and cracked down the side of the neck. If it was just the ear I could possibly try to weld it back and then drill/tap it but with the long crack running down the inside and outside of the neck I fear it's not salvageable.
Checked around and saw that it didn't appear to be part of the front structure so yay that gave me hope! Removed 5 bolts and a nut just to find out there's not enough clearance to remove thermostat housing because of the stud that's to the drivers side of the water pump housing which is on the... front structure...
Has anyone successfully removed that stud using double nut method? That seems to be the only way I can fathom to MAYBE pull this off without having to crack it apart and pull the engine out to get everything out of the way enough to remove the front cover. I normally don't have much luck with the double nut method but wanted to see if anyone has either done it or has any other ideas/suggestions?
