Zen and the art of bolt removal

Well, it was time to replace the starter in my '81 E-150 Econoline w/300. Bottom bolt removed without much effort (9/16 head) but as fr the top bolt it was a reduced head bolt (1/2") showing signs of being corroded in place.

Trying a 3/8 drive socket on a 6 inch extension (nesessary for clearance) try as I might I couldn't budge the dang thing despite my Orangutan arms. No problem I have an old Craftsman 1/2 inch drive with a 16" breaker bar. From under the van a went feeling for the offending bolt and placing the socket on it and again, it took a concerted amount of effort before the socket slipped off of the bolt head, stripping it. :-arrgh
I was about to P!ss on the fire and call the dog on this when my best friend stopped by and relating what I was up to he took a look and he got some of his tools to attack this bolt. First we attempted to drive on a slightly smaller metric throwaway socket with my 5 lb. mallet to drive it on but with a tiny shoulder of the head of that damm bolt we couldn't get enough bite.
I then tried my little Benomatic torch on it to see if I could free it up followed by failed attempt with a pair of needle nosed vice grips. We then tried some penetrating oil and let it set for a spell, then using the throwaway socket impacting the bolt with the mallet again to no avail.
It is very tight quarters in this part of the engine compartment despite the I6 being skinnier than the V8, the exhaust pipe is right in the way with no means of removing it due to other clearance issues.








We then checked to see if we could squeeze in a 4 inch grinder to grind the head off of the bolt, but as you can see from the photos it's just too tight. My friend then broke out his Sawzall and with a new metal blade tried to get a bead on the bolt head but the throw of the blade kept throwing him off of his mark. So it was up to my Dremel tool with the kit of tiny 3/4 inch cutoff wheels. To get it even with the axis of the bolt head it took my friend on the top side (from the doghouse nacelle) and me working from underneath to manipulate the switch. We went through 4 cutoff wheels and another attempt with the Sawzall and we were very close to the mounting flange, so we stopped to see if we could break the starter past what little there was left of the bolt head~it held fast. :-arrgh. Beating it with my 5 lb. mallet to release some frustration and to see if there was any deflection we found the starter was moving a tiny bit. Using the Dremel once again and the cutoff wheels carefully shaving off by the fraction of a millimeter what I thought were the remnants of the bolt head... still it held fast. Taking my mallet and adjusting my body position for better leverage a beat on the starter with all the force I could muster and finally it dropped on my chest with the bolt threads protruding thround the mounting flange on the bellhousing. I bumped it with the trouble light and my frined saw the bolt move a tiny bit~sure enough the bolt was free and now could be removed using my fingers.
you can bet we used a conventional 9/16 head bolt on that damm thing when we mounted up the new starter. Total time spent on this single bolt was 5 1/4 hours.
:-roll

 

That's the worst when that happens. Been there more than once, ack!

Glad you got it

 

I had to drill and tap 2 bolts like that on my 90 ford ranger's Mitsubishi transmission (iirc), more so where the bell met the engine. Had to cut them off. Then I had to grind flush after pulling the trans. Then I had find, center to drill and tap to clean it up. Sucked. Took me two days on a 28 degree garage floor using two 18" extensions to get to the breaker bar... And drilling was scary just the same. Trans out and holes were ready to go...

That was after 5 years of Virginia brined roads and moving back to California.

I feel your pain.

 

Mazda, not Mitsubishi, I'm pretty sure, Ford had a very large stake in Mazda, Chrysler was the one in bed with Mitsubishi...

 

Yep, indeed, you're right... I've not had that good little truck for nearly 10yrs now. It was the five-speed OD version with the 4L v6 4wd, and those junk 'auto' hubs that failed me on a descent of a 4wd trail, thankfully they worked in reverse and I backed up the mountain and went home and converted to the warn-manuals... and when the trans went, I got it stopped in time so that I didnt' weld the whole thing together, it sounded like banshees were yanking the claws out of a pride of wildcats in tin buckets when it went...

 

At least I had the good sense not to use the 'Gator Grip' socket on it as I had a terrible experience with it and a steel pipe plug in an aluminum intake manifold where it simply rounded off the top of the pipe plug off the get~go. Come to find out that Craftsman has no 1/2 inch drive 1/2 inch 6 point sockets. Couldn't find any at NAPA either

 

Impact sockets are six point. My set includes 1/2" x 1/2"

I feel your pain, turbogus.
"Zen and the Art" indeed had a great section on keeping your together in this situation.

 

This post made me think...Went out and checked my box and there it was. Part number 44055..... Sears.com

 

glad you got it . but if it was me and the starter didn't matter . cutting torch or as we call it liquid wrench in a bottle

 

AKA "flame wrench."

 

I posted a note on the TractorByNet forum when I was taking an old plow apart. I wanted to save some of the fasteners. Here is one reply -

I use heat and a wax candle. The heat from a propane torch is fine but a Mapp torch is better. Oxy/acetylene or a tiger torch works well too. Just get the whole nut warm enough to melt the wax and use it as a penetrating oil. Wax seems to flow in better than anything as long as your using enough heat to keep the wax melted.

Once you have the wax in there just take two hammers and hold one under the side of the nut and then hit the opposite side. You don't need to hit hard you just want to set up a vibration between the nut and the bolt to help the wax penetrate. For the same reason it will help to hit the bolt on the head while it's warm. Do this several times and you won't even need a cheater pipe on your breaker bar.

I don't like to get nuts red hot with w torch when I'm trying to remove them as it seems that once they cool they shrink and are tighter than they were before. Good luck

I should add that an impact wrench set low enough so as not to twist off the bolt also sets up enough vibration to loosen the bolts once they have wax on them.
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I asked the poster where he got the idea. He said his brother worked on oil drilling rigs in Canada and it is a common practice in the field. It did work perfectly for me. I just used a small propane torch. I now keep candle stubs in my tool box.

 

Great reccomendations and thoughts all, I think the greatest challenge was the clearance issues we had between the engine block, oil pan and rusted in place exhaust pipe. What's more, in this case the bolt was threaded into a threaded boss, rather than a nut. Time pressue didn't help either what with my 7 day working week, I needed 'Easy Bake' the following day (Sunday)