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Need some advice on removing a snapped bolt

H

hitchhiker

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Wake Forest, NC
So I snapped the bolt that the rear leaf shackle hangs on. Probably a couple thousand pounds of force sheared it in half. I was pushing a lever with my feet to get it to come out that far. Anyway I managed to finally cut the shackle off of it.

snapped%20bolt.jpg


That bolt is 1/2 inch and it's stuck really well. I tried to weld a nut onto it and spin it off but the nut broke the weld (kinda hard to weld in that small spot since it's boxed in). I do have nuts that fit the threads.

So at this point I've come down to a few options. I can spin the nut on further and weld the threads rather then the nut then when I spin the nut off it will get stopped by the weld.

Try to heat it off (I've never really had any luck with that I've got small tank of propane I can use for that).

Anyone used one of these?

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/ac...od3-b2c6?counter=0&itemIdentifier=532381_0_0_

Any other suggestions that might work the best for getting it out? If push comes to shove I can cut out the lower quarter panel for better access but I'd like to avoid it for now since thats just more work I need to patch up before my next offroading trip.
 
Go to walmart or home depot and get a MAPP torch. They are MUCH hotter than propane. Let it heat it up for about 10 minutes and then take a pipe wrench and twist that baby out. It might help to tighten/loosen/tighten/loosen and work it out so it doesn't snap.
 
I drilled a hole in the front leaf spring pocket and stuck the torch close to it so the flame would touch the nut.

That shackle nut is the same idea, so same concept applies.
 
MoparManiac said:
Heat is your best friend here.

Propane is going to take forever to get the thing hot.
Click to expand...
I actually had decent luck with propane on mine. I was putting deep purple marks and blood blisters on my palms with a 1.5 foot breaker bar on one of my shackle bolts (when I did my frame repairs) and after about a minute of propane torching, could turn the bolt easily with a regular 21mm box wrench.

I'd try welding another nut on (turn it on till you have about a 1/8" deep recess between the end of the bolt and the surface of the nut, carefully fill that with weld - worked great for me on a d30 hub bolt I did a week or two ago)

FYI those bolts are M14x2.0, not 1/2", so get an M14x2.0 nut.
 
I had no luck with either propane or the mapp gas enough though I got the frame rail red hot. I ended up cutting off the lower quarter panel and hammering a bolt extractor on to what was left of the bolt and pulling it out that way.

Guess I was going to cut off the corners eventually anyway. Thanks for the suggestions
 
UUUhhhhh..... did ya cut OFF the QPs, or did ya cut and FOLD the QPs?
That's a pretty structural area... you don't want to just cut em off completely.
 
you cant just get a cobalt bit and drill it out?
 
A candle could have saved you many hours of repair sir. I have tried this on helplessly rusted bolts of all sizes. heat the broken bolt to darn that really hurt my finger when i touched it and then apply the candle to the bolt and threads. everytime it will magically come out with little to no effort.
 
also, can't you just remove the rear bumper, and gain access to the nut in the back? If so you could have taken a punch or air chisel and blasted off that piece of bolt/weld nut combo and gone in from the back with a new nut. I'm about to tackle this myself so i'd like to know if by removing the rear bumper you can get to the area the nut is welded on.

Also could have double jam nutted it, then heated it.

of course you are done with the repair but for the future reference i'm wondering if these ideas would work.
 
Bandit, not quite... the nut is in a pocket between the wall of the frame rail and the shackle. If you pull the rear bumper about all you can see is the end of the bolt.
 
mcantar18c said:
UUUhhhhh..... did ya cut OFF the QPs, or did ya cut and FOLD the QPs?
That's a pretty structural area... you don't want to just cut em off completely.
Click to expand...

:eyes:

It'll fold like a taco!

Seriously though...do you really think that? Who cares, any structure it actually has is minimum and effects very little once "weakened."

~Scott
 
Was this the original bolt? In your first post, you mentioned it was a 1/2" bolt. The stock bolt is in fact, a 12mm bolt. If you (or the rig's previous owner) were able to stuff a 1/2-13 into a 12 x 1.5mm hole, that could be part of the reason it was so difficult to extract. Look at the head of the bolt - if it says 10.9 or 9.8 or (hopefully not) 8.8 it's metric and more likely the correct size. Other than that, everything I read in this thread sounds reasonable.
 
Last edited:
Should be an M14x2.0 iirc, but yeah, SAE into a metric hole... not good!
 
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