Dont laugh....too hard anyway

Just picked up a 4 pack of B&D Easy outs. I have never used them before. I need to get a broken bolt out of the YJ's front frame member that held on the passenger side of the front bumper. If I understand it right I have to drill a hole about the size of the easy out size I am going to use and need to drill the hole as deep as I can. Then thread the easyout in with a tap handle then switch over to a bigger two handled tap handle. Is this about right... Any suggestions ??

RichP

The ez-out should indicate what size hole to drill for that particular size ez out.

The only tips I can give you is to drill straight and dont twist the ez-out to hard, they are brittle. A broken ez-out is much more difficult to remove than a broken bolt.

Well, that was a November Sierra, they sure do break nice and they are a witch to drill out but we're getting there. Not impressed with easy outs so far..... they seem to be to be an item you drill one hole for in a hard material just so you can put something in there thats even harder to drill out and could it break off even...nooooo, had to break off at an angle... guess I'll just drill out the whole thing and rethread.

What I hate it trying t get an easy out on a bolt in an aluminum timing chain cover...hard bolt, put the bit on it...bit slides off the bolt just when you think it's biting and punches a hole in the cover!

Not that I know from experiance or anything...

Best to start with a small pilot hole first.Then go to a bigger bit/bigger EZ out.You don,t want to break a small EZ out in the hole.As you found out.
Try a little heat or PB blaster to loosen things up.
Wayne

Use a cutoff wheel in something like a dremel tool to straighten up the end of the easy out.

I've never had an easy out actually work on a truly rust frozen bolt. I always ended up drilling them almost all the way out and retapping the hole.

Before you try to take out a bolt PBlaster it for several days ahead and then smack it squarely on the head with a big lead hammer or somethign similar to try and break the threads loose.

Always use Never Seize when putting things back together (especially under the vehicle) to lessen the chances of another stuck bolt. Caveat - I guess there's times when you don't want to use the Never Seize but I can't think of any right now.

Did that, been soaking that broken bolt for the past 2 weeks. Impatient son, dark out, raining, IOW Ideal working conditons.....for a duck.
Should have snuck up on it till it was almost drilled out then just tapped it again. Oh well, live and learn, 38 years of never using an easy-out and I always did fine. Guess the remaining 4 will end up in the tool box someplace.

You got a "useless tool" drawer too?

XJ_MAC said:

I've never had an easy out actually work on a truly rust frozen bolt. I always ended up drilling them almost all the way out and retapping the hole.

Click to expand...

I've never had an easy out work -- period. My set is buried so deep in the bottom of the useless tool drawer that it'll take a team of archeologists 50 years to dig 'em out. I can't believe they still sell the damn things.

I usually take an old allen and weld it to the broken bolt. Easy outs suck.

Sean

Easy Outs suck- if you don't know how to use them. First, you must drill the right sized hole then clamp the Easy Out with a pair of good Vise Grips if you have the style that's set up for a tap handle. Then gradually apply torque while tapping on the end of the Easy Out with a hammer. The trick here is not twisting so hard that you break the Easy Out.

The first tool you should grab out of the obsolete drawer when a bot sticks is that little used box of Eternal Patience. In my job I've removed thousands of stuck screws, bolts, nuts and other types of hardware and until I learned I needed the utmost in patience I stood a great chance of simply making matters worse.

If you can get to the back side of the bolt, see if you can clamp on the end of it with a good pair of Vise Grips. Of course a generous shot of PB Blaster or Mouse Milk is mandatory.

Another trick is to tighten the bolt/screw/nut just a tick to break the threads loose