[Austin]

Well After cleaning my steering box, I noticed that one of the bolt was broken in half in the threads of the box, Does this mean drill it out and re-tap it?? or is there another way?


Thanks

[Austin]

Well After cleaning my steering box, I noticed that one of the bolt was broken in half in the threads of the box, Does this mean drill it out and re-tap it?? or is there another way?


Thanks

[goathead68]

If there's a little nub of the bolt sticking out, you could try a good pair of vise grips, a little heat and penetrating oil to get the bolt out. Heat the area around the bolt, soak the bolt with the penetrating oil, and clamp on to it with the vise grips. Work the bolt back and forth until you get it out. Liberally spray the bolt with penetrating oil while working the bolt back and forth. Take your time and you should be able to get the bolt out.

If the bolt is broken off flush, you could try an easy out, which would mean that you'd have to drill a little bit into the broken bolt. You can get easy outs at the hardware store in the tools section. I'm not sure of the size of your broken bolt, so I'd get an easy out kit. Follow the instructions that come with the kit. Soak the broken bolt with a good penetrating oil when you're ready to remove it. A little heat here would be a good thing. With a little luck and some patience, you will be successful.

If worse comes to worse, you'll have to drill out the bolt and re-tap the threads.

[meanolegoat]

my .02 cents, if ya cant get it out with the heat/soak method, go ahead and drill and tap it. the thing had to snap for a reason. be sure to center punch it and start with a very small pilot hole. worse comes to worse you can go oversize and helicoil it, with a steady hand and paitence youll be o.k., i hate a easyout because if it breaks ya cant drill through it just like a tap, speaking of tap i left by brew somewhere....mean

[Austin]

Thanks for the info guys, Ill give them a shot and see what happens [img]smile.gif[/img] I think I am going to have to drill it out, we shall see.

[ June 30, 2002, 03:43 AM: Message edited by: Austin ]

[Austin]

Well got it fixed, had to have it drilled out and re-tapped, looks great too.
Thanks for your help

[Andre]

There is something about the design of the 1964-67 frame that always causes one of the steering box bolts to deteriorate much faster than the other 2. Two would be like new, and the third would be rusty. I think it was the one that was closest to the bottom. Water/salt probably puddled in this area of the frame.

I didn't think that the problem continued with the later model frames.

[ July 06, 2002, 06:36 PM: Message edited by: Andre ]

[Austin]

Your correct, this was the bottom bolt and was very very bad, The other two were like new. Thats strange....