Somebody Please Have Mercy On Me And My Header Bolt....Please?

[Nessism]

Too late now but when presented with a similar issue I take my dremmel cut off wheel and cut a slot in the screw. Fit a flat bit into your impact screwdriver and have at it with a heavy hammer. "Usually" works - famous last words.

[Mark M]

I'm in a similar position right now but with the stud bolts for the oil filter compartment. Got two of them out easily with vise grips but one just does NOT want to move, and it's one of the upper ones where you have little room to maneuver. The threads are pretty much stripped on it but a lot of it sticks out still. Going to have a friend come over and weld a nut to it, hope that does it.

Instead of vise grips, try a small pipe wrench. Gets a MUCH better bite and the harder you twist, the harder it bites instead of slipping off.

Mark

[Clone]

NO DRILLS, NO EASY OUTS, go directly to sears, and buy a good pair of vise grips, come directly back after stopping at 7-11 for a gulp. Hit that puppy once really good with a ball peen hammer, 1lb should do ya, grab it with that most excellent pair of vise grips and turn it out.

[rustybronco]

There have been post about some kind of electrical erosion process that some machine shops use, not sure if the head has to be removed or not. Probably a search would find the post, I know the word "erosion" is part of the technical term but can't remember the whole term right now.

EDM electrical discharge machining.
glad you got it out!

[RotaryRodder]

for future reference. If part of the bolt head is sticking out try to weld a washer to it, then weld a nut to the washer and then inside the nut to the bolt. The heat will loosen it up and you will have a good place to grab it with the nut on there.

[03svrider]

i had to drill and helicoil mine. don't know how well it will hold up as i need a rectifier now. is that a crack in the head from where the bolt is stuck in? i don't know if that crack will be a problem but i'm sure someone here would.

didn't see the other pages for this post when i put my 2 cents in. that hole looks better than mine after the helicoiling! i did leave some room to tap it a bit larger if the helicoil doesn't hold. looking forward to that!

[mbopp]

Same Problem

I have the exact same problem, only mine is on #3 so it's a little harder to get to. I might have to resort to drilling it out as well. But I'm pretty nervous about it. I don't want to mess anything up too bad. Any further advice for using a tap to get it out?