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welding strait to engine block?
- Thread starter hoytinak
- Start date
Island XJ
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- The Great White North
drill them out and retap the holes.hoytinak said:
- Location
- Port Orchard, WA
JJacobs
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Fort Collins CO
Aargh, that has to be the WORST part of xj ownership I've experienced.
Don't weld it, that is wrong on so many levels. Your best bet is something akin to a cutting wheel on an angle grinder, notch through the boss on the block and into the end of the bolt. Then just use a flatblade screwdriver to turn the chunks out.
And keep those new bolts tight! No torx!
Don't weld it, that is wrong on so many levels. Your best bet is something akin to a cutting wheel on an angle grinder, notch through the boss on the block and into the end of the bolt. Then just use a flatblade screwdriver to turn the chunks out.
And keep those new bolts tight! No torx!
5-90
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Hammerspace
[Jeff Foxworthy]"How did THAT happen?"[/Jeff]
Welding cast anything is a pain. Welding wrought anything to cast anything is a bigger pain, where dimensions are critical. Besides, I don't think you'd be doing yourself any favours that way...
You can spot-weld something to the broken bolt shanks and extract them, and replace with better bolts to fix things right. Motor mounts are not something to be toyed with... Failing that, you'll have to figure out how to access the broken bolts for a drill and a stub extractor, but that's a great way to cause more trouble than you have. The spot weld idea is better - you can use a regular bolt for that, just grind the end to get rid of the Zinc plating...
5-90
Welding cast anything is a pain. Welding wrought anything to cast anything is a bigger pain, where dimensions are critical. Besides, I don't think you'd be doing yourself any favours that way...
You can spot-weld something to the broken bolt shanks and extract them, and replace with better bolts to fix things right. Motor mounts are not something to be toyed with... Failing that, you'll have to figure out how to access the broken bolts for a drill and a stub extractor, but that's a great way to cause more trouble than you have. The spot weld idea is better - you can use a regular bolt for that, just grind the end to get rid of the Zinc plating...
5-90
Right angle drill can fit in there.
If you use reverse cut drill bits, you might get lucky and unscrew the remaining stub of bolt while you are trying to drill it out.
That worked for me on one bolt.
Also, since the bolts are so hard, it is difficult to keep the drill bits sharp.
Using a drill bit with that is designed for drilling through many types of materials worked for me too. These bits have a hardened part inset at the end of the bit.
Lastly, there is another couple of unused bolt holes on the block near the normal three. I welded together a bracket that is bolted to those, is sandwiched behind the normal bracket and also is bolted to that bracket after I drilled a hole into it. This was my "insurance" as I ended up with less than perfect threads in those holes after extraction and retapping.
Oh yeah... one other bit of insurance that was not ideal is some JB weld in those "less than perfect" bolt holes. This could be an issue during an engine rebuild, but otherwise it has been fine for ~ 3 years.
Bottom line is that it is a pain in the butt to work on it while the engine is in the Jeep, but that is what I had to do... I think I spent a week screwing around with different drill bits etc.
If you use reverse cut drill bits, you might get lucky and unscrew the remaining stub of bolt while you are trying to drill it out.
That worked for me on one bolt.
Also, since the bolts are so hard, it is difficult to keep the drill bits sharp.
Using a drill bit with that is designed for drilling through many types of materials worked for me too. These bits have a hardened part inset at the end of the bit.
Lastly, there is another couple of unused bolt holes on the block near the normal three. I welded together a bracket that is bolted to those, is sandwiched behind the normal bracket and also is bolted to that bracket after I drilled a hole into it. This was my "insurance" as I ended up with less than perfect threads in those holes after extraction and retapping.
Oh yeah... one other bit of insurance that was not ideal is some JB weld in those "less than perfect" bolt holes. This could be an issue during an engine rebuild, but otherwise it has been fine for ~ 3 years.
Bottom line is that it is a pain in the butt to work on it while the engine is in the Jeep, but that is what I had to do... I think I spent a week screwing around with different drill bits etc.
Mike L
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Anaheim, CA
I had the same thing happen a while ago because the driver side motor mount gave out. The bracket opposite the broken motor mount is always the one that gets the most abuse. I had to drill them out and use helicoils to fix it. The easiest way to do it if you don't have access to a right angle drill is have a jack under the oil pan and undo the other motor mount and drop the motor. This way you can get at it easier. If you do drop the motor you need to check the clearance between the fan and radiatiator. You could just pull the fan and the radiator than you can drop it a good ways. HTH.
-Mike
-Mike
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