Snapped a bolt on the pressure plate, 5 ok rather than 6???

[vtcruiser60]

While prepping the flywheel for resurfacing, I snapped one of the 6 bolts holding the pressure plate to the flywheel.

I already tried removing the broken bolt. There is no lip to the bolt and it is recessed. I tried an easy out with the help of Rabid on the board, and of course that broke off. That left us with a hardened steel lip. We tried welding a nut to the top, three times actually, but couldn't get it to hold and unscrew. I am out of broken bolt tricks.

So......can I live with 5 rather than 6 holding the pressure plate? Or should I drag the flywheel back to the machine shop for professional extraction?

 

[ken_79-fj40]

When I pulled the driveline from my 40 for the first time since I had bought it I discovered it was not only missing a pressure plate bolt, but there was also no dowel pins! So it can work, but I would be paying a visit to the machine shop if it were me.

 

[Southeast Overland]

Have a machine shop take care of it for you - it probably won't cost much at all.

 

[Buckwheat]

EZ

EZ outs should be called something else. I have found that drilling with successively bigger drills until almost only threads are left is the most reliable way to get them to work. Do not use the spiral-threaded units, they are s***e. Sears has a good set, for a good price, of the squared, tapered type that I find most useful. And when tightening those bolts in future, make sure to use an end wrench, not a ratchet. I think the torque is only ~20 ftlbs.

 

[crushr]

5 bolts might be OK, but you won't know until it fails. I wouldn't do it in my rig.

 

[vtcruiser60]

Well i took the wisdom of the crowd and dropped the pressure plate off at the machine shop. Thanks.

 

[rabid]

I just got it FROM the damn machine shop! OH well.

 

[Tigerstripe40]

EZ outs should be called something else. I have found that drilling with successively bigger drills until almost only threads are left is the most reliable way to get them to work. Do not use the spiral-threaded units, they are s***e. Sears has a good set, for a good price, of the squared, tapered type that I find most useful. And when tightening those bolts in future, make sure to use an end wrench, not a ratchet. I think the torque is only ~20 ftlbs.

I had a set of them. When I snapped one off in the side cover extracting a bolt, and snapped off a drill bit trying to get that out, I wound up having to take my truck to a local shop where they had to take a torch and normalize the steel. Cost me $200 to have that fixed.

The 'EZ outs' went in the trash....



I have a large supply of japanese standard metric nuts and bolts. Anytime I remove something that has been on the truck 20+ years it gets replaced with new hardware. Just isn't worth dealing with broken bolts.

 

[3jvj]

Ez out my arse. Never had a smooth extraction.

Buckwheat is right; start small and progress up.


You did the right thing. I wouldn't run five just for balance reasons.

 

[Degnol]

You did the right thing. Heavy s*** spinning at 3,000+ rpms is nothing to sneeze at. Although essevtially "captured" by the input shaft, it could cause more than a racket.

BTW, welding a nut on has worked for me, but only with the welder (Miller 250) turned up to Chernobyl and starting the arc on the stuck part.

UDONEGOOD

 

[fj hunter]

old days...

in the old days, i would not hesitate to just weld it up to the end of the crank flange...

I have gotten several clutch changes out of serious vehicles that I just drilled out the weld to do the next change. And then rewleded it after bolting it up.

now days, drill shaft, and ez out the bolt...have had to heat a few down there on my Daily Driver, a 87 2wD when a bolt broke there...plus on the second clutch there, i drilled out the problem hole and retapped it to the next bigger bolt with same thread size.

all things considered, you have many options. Best to your work.