Broken bolt tech

Jody Treadway

Jody Treadway

Croc wearing fool
Moderator
Joined
Mar 20, 2005
Location
Hendersonville, NC
Let's say, purely hypothetically, that you broke 2 out of 3 steering arm studs off your passenger knuckle. Both remaining studs are below the surface of the knuckle. What do you do? You could always drill out the remaining fastener and risk drilling crooked. You could also roll the dice with using an easy out or similar bolt extractor.
I chose another route that we have discussed here before and thought I'd share my step by step attempt at removing 2 broken and rusted 9/16" studs.
I started by cleaning the top of the studs so I could get a better weld on them. Then I placed a nut with a similar diameter over top of the broken stud. Next step was to fill the nut with as much weld as possible. This accomplishes 2 things. One, it gives you a surface to now use a wrench on to remove. It also directs a lot of heat into the knuckle to help release the fastener.
Once I finished welding, I used a wrench and simply loosened the nut and out came the remaining stud. I repeated the process on the other stud and am now ready to install new studs and get back on the trails.

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I'm glad you got them out with out damage. I am curious though. Would they have come with an easy out or similar extractor or did it take a lot of torque to loosen ?
 
I did give them a few taps with a chisel to see if they would move. Sometimes once the head is broken off, they just spin easily ya know. Neither of them had any interest in moving without heat. Figured I'd kill two birds with one stone and remove them with welding.
You can see in one pic where they had been loose and the arm moving on the studs marred the threads. I bet they were a little loose all weekend and me driving up the tree on Mason Jar instead of leaning against it didn't help any!

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this is really cool to see and learn but would help out more if i knew what i was looking at exactly. did the top part/nut of the Tie Rod end (basically) brake off?? i'm not very familiar with these big axles at all so i can't tell what i'm looking at but that's a really awesome way to get broken studs out when you can get in there with welder!! very cool to learn
 
so it's basically tie rod ends attaching to those flat top knuckles...sorry man i've never been much outside of jeep axles so still learning all the terminology and i'm better learning in person/visual than with words (hence why never went to school for this stuff lol)
is there any reason why this wouldn't work with exhaust manifold bolts? but on aluminum heads
 
Yes you are correct. A flat piece of steel with holes it mounts on top of the knuckle and is held in place via studs. The drag link attaches to that arm. Doing so lessens the operating angle of the drag link and restores good steering geometry. If you have a corresponding arm on the other aide, you can attach the tie rod between the two and have what is called "high steer".
Also you can use this trick on any fastener that you can weld to. I've used it on Jeep bumper bolts, cross member bolts, manifold bolts, etc.
 
Jody Treadway said:
Also you can use this trick on any fastener that you can weld to. I've used it on Jeep bumper bolts, cross member bolts, manifold bolts, etc.
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sweet man. thanks for the lesson and this advise is really good to know. looking forward to trying one out next time LOL (usually that wouldn't be the case but since we all encounter these issues, i can say that i guess).
it looked to me like the bolts were broken FLUSH though....how did you manage to weld the inside of the nut to the broken stud but without welding to the steel that the studs are inside of (if that makes sense) unless i'm looking at the picture wrong. that's been my biggest issue is getting broken studs when they break flush with something (had this happen on the Jeep very front manifold bolt many times including my current one) so i've had to drill and drill forever to make new hole in broken stud,etc.
 
i just reread your first post and u said they broke off below the surface...holy crap. you're a heck of welder to weld the nut in place without welding it all together to steering arm. Props to you!!
 
Simple, I keep the surrounding area dirty and the top of the broken bolt is clean. That way the weld will be more likely to hold to the fastener only. Also, it just takes practice. It is very important to use the proper size nut to weld down into.
 
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Jody Treadway said:
Simple, I keep the surrounding area dirty and the top of the broken bolt is clean. That way the weld will be more likely to hold to the fastener only. Also, it just takes practice. It is very important to use the proper size but to weld down into.
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practice i'm sure lol. i know my first couple would end up welding the whole shabang all-together ending up with bigger issues LOL. next day of down time, i'm gonna go brake couple bolts in this scrap saturn wagon and try it. sounds like a good way to practice on scrap car before my own or customers! Thanks for all the input.
 
I'm glad I'm not the only one! I've use this same trick multiple times on my d44 steering studs.
 
That really works well unless the bolt is broken below the surface. Then your stuck with the drill & easyout.


Years ago I helped remove a tilt-a-whirl from Coney Island. Man the broken rusted ass bolts & pins from the salt air. We soaked everything before hand then wire brushed all the exposed threads & we still ended up with days of welding repair from torching out bolts..
 
I tried this on a boogered up diff cover bolt, figured since I had the welder I'd try it instead of the SOP of fawing it up real good with vice grips. Worked like a charm.

Another time I had a fitting corroded in a 4,0l HO engine that was going in a renix XJ, I needed that port for knock sensor. I can't remember why it wouldn't come out, but with a bigass nut welded to it, the problem was solved.
 
glad to hear all the success stories!!
 
Done this trick several times. Another tip is to weld some on the bolt itself to build it up before placing the nut on it. Have to be accurate with the mig wire. Make sure to turn the voltage up a bit to keep from spattering everywhere and keep the arc moving to make a weld with adequate fusion. Staying in one spot and letting it build up won't work with mig on hard steels.

Usually If you keep the weld where it's supposed to be, if any gets on surrounding metal, it won't have adequate fusion to hurt anything.
 
I've done this trick several times, always w/ success as long as there is enough space to get the weld into there.

Black Bear said:
The old weld something to it trick, its a good trick.

I have heard that if you weld a flat washer to it first then the nut is some how more better.
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My biggest fear is always getting just a little too much weld and accidentally sticking it to the sides.
One problem w/ a nut is that you don't have a lot of space to target the wire to b/c the side of the nut get in the way - it's a lot easier w/ big bolts like this, but a little M8 is really tight.
I never thought about this before, but I'd bet that by laying a washer on it first and welding that on would be a whole lot easier b/c you can see inside the hole better. Once you get that washer welded on well, that gives yo ua nice big surface to weld a bigger bolt on top of.
 
Another advantage of welding the bolt is that the knuckle constrains the expansion of the bolt due to heat, but as the bolt cools back down, it shrinks, further decreasing its bite on the hole. I've done the same thing with bearing races that I didn't feel like fighting out.
 
I hate those "purely hypothetical" situations! So let's continue...

Were those OE class studs, some Ubergrade/ARP studs or ??
What kind of nuts (conical lugnuts, coned washers, or ??)
Did you previously torque them before a ride and just forgot, or ??
 
Caver Dave said:
I hate those "purely hypothetical" situations! So let's continue...

Were those OE class studs, some Ubergrade/ARP studs or ??
What kind of nuts (conical lugnuts, coned washers, or ??)
Did you previously torque them before a ride and just forgot, or ??
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They were OEM quality studs with cone washers and the correct nuts. I admittedly hadn't checked their torque in a while. Not since I replaced ball joints a about 5 months back.
I'll call this a combo of normal wear and failure to verify tightness. I beat the thing like it owes me money so this ain't no biggie.
 
Jody Treadway said:
I beat the thing like it owes me money so this ain't no biggie.
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TOTALLY AWESOME!!! i look forward to someday being able to say this about mine but in it's current state,LOL, wouldn't take too much a beating before i owed it money LMFAO.
 
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