Balancer Bolt Snapped....

[91@CCORD74]

I was driving the other day and my powersteering and alternator stopped working. Pulled over and found the harmonic balancer wobbling and the bolt but the bolt still tight. I cut the car off and tried to tighten the bolt but it wudnt budge. Tried to loosen it and got the same response. 30 mins later it started backing out like it was stripped, I finally got it out but like a inch of the bolt is still in my crank. I tried to use the Ez Out and it didnt work. Only thing I got left is spray it with Pb Blaster and try the Ez out in 24 hours..Any Suggestions???

[ferenza]

You may have to pull the engine out and get another.
That piece of bolt may never come out of the crank unless its machined out.Its hard trying to get them out regular , just a small part could prove near impossible. Your best bet is to get another engine or pull yours, go to the junkyard ,grab a crank and rebuild your motor.Best of luck

[toycar]

Go get a left hand turn drill bit kit, and some reverse threaded bolts to fit the hole you are about to drill.



Drill hole with left hand bit, thread hole with left hand tap, thread reverse threaded bolt into new hole in old bolt, and turn it out.


Quite a process I know, but, its better than replacing the crankshaft. And, that is about your only other option aside from removing this bolt. If you have never done anything like this before, you might want to limp the car to a reputable shop.

Its a half an hour job for someone with the know-how and right tools. I bet a shop will extract the broken bolt for $50-$100

[wed3k]

yea it might be better to have a shop to do the extraction because my shop charges 220 a hole for broken drill bits and ez outs.

[oni_cb7]

Go get a left hand turn drill bit kit, and some reverse threaded bolts to fit the hole you are about to drill.



Drill hole with left hand bit, thread hole with left hand tap, thread reverse threaded bolt into new hole in old bolt, and turn it out.


Quite a process I know, but, its better than replacing the crankshaft. And, that is about your only other option aside from removing this bolt. If you have never done anything like this before, you might want to limp the car to a reputable shop.

Its a half an hour job for someone with the know-how and right tools. I bet a shop will extract the broken bolt for $50-$100

^This.

I've done this same exact thing on my current motor. Use a helicoil for a spark plug hole. It will be the strongest. My dad and I did it on my car, but it took a weekend to do in the driveway. It was really hard to get the end of the broken bolt out of the crankshaft. Drill it out from the center and it eventually broke to the point where we could pull it out with some picks. Probably took 6 hours total, especially aligning the drill for the hole for the helicoil (it needs to be perfectly level with the motor and we were on a slight incline with only one side of the car jacked up). We take our time when we work on our cars.

It's lasted around 40,000 miles so far and has showed no issues.