Bolt studs broken in the head

[YungICY]

What can I do to get a couple of broken bolts out of the head of my engine? They a snapped clean off just under the surface.





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[Mark_88]

Exhaust bolts or accessory?

Exhaust bolts tend to be a bit tougher to remove and usually require drilling and possible retapping. I've managed to extract accessory bolts (alternator bracket) with just a drill and some bolt extraction bits...but only because they were much less threaded into the block than exhaust bolts normally are.

 

[YungICY]

They are the upper alternator bracket bolts. So I've got a decent shot with just a drill and some bolt extractors? Ill dig around the garage and see if I have any of those bits. Fingers crossed.


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[Spott]

Left-hand-twist drill bits can work beautifully in this application.

Spott

 

[Mark_88]

Don't tell me...you have the old style alternator bracket that comes in two pieces...a sort of triangular upper made of aluminum and the metal lower that is sort of curved?

I've had mine break off twice and looked everywhere for a replacement to no avail. It is still holding but I am going to switch it out for one that mounts on the other side and has a tension pulley...requires a bit of modification of the electrical system, but I think that design is much better...considering those replacement upper brackets are almost impossible to find or buy.

Oh, and the ones from a mustang will work, but the alternator is different...but they take the same connectors as the Ranger version...

 

[YungICY]

Unfortunately that is the style I have. Good to know there's better options out there though. Maybe I'll switch to the other one when I rebuild my other motor since I'm planning on rewiring most of the truck when that happens anyways.



I got one of the broken ones out but I couldn't get the other. I ha e two bolts holding it right now so hopefully it will hold for a while.


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[RonD]

++ on the reverse drill bits, while drilling the hole for the "easy out" the bolt will often just unscrew from the vibration and direction of rotation.

 

[Mark_88]

OK, mine is held on with only one, because part of the base broke.

Does yours have the large bolt at the top that slides through the base of the alternator?

If it does, it will hold with one or two bolts, but make sure they go in deep enough. I made the mistake of using a slightly shorter bolt that was only held by a few threads. That caused the bolt to snap off, but it was easy to remove the last bit and put in a new bolt.

Main thing is to make sure the bottom bracket bolt is really tight, the one that holds the other end of the alternator on the curved metal lower bracket...otherwise you could get slop in the belt and that puts strain on the upper bracket...

Mine has actually snapped off twice so I was looking around to either replace it with something better or move it to the other side. There is actually a Tech Library bulletin on upgrading the older style alternators to the newer style on the other side of the engine...search on upgrading alternator or something like that and you will find a few articles on it.

 

[Andy D]

I dont have very good luck with easy outs. If you shear one, it has to be burnt out. I drill, I use a 1/8 pilot hole, then I work up by 1/8ths until I can pick the threads out. I recently bought a set of left handed bits, but I haven't the need to use them yet.

 

[YungICY]

Yeah Mark, mine is exactly like that. I have the bottom bolt and the top rear bolt in the upper mount holding it on. The bottom bolt is a shorter one that holds by like 6 or seven threads and the upper one is a longer bolt. I'm definitely check out that tech info. I hate this design cuz I can never seem to get good tension on the belt. Its always either way too tight or my belt squeals like a banshee.


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