Using a hammer mark the center of the broken bolt with a center punch. If youve worked on an older car for more than five minutes youll know what it is to give a bolt your all with a lefty loosey and the head snaps off as if it was the tightiest of righties.
Crisis Extract Broken Bolt On Alternator Welding
Alternator bolt broke in block. Two of the alternator bracket bolts broke off in the head of my 1992 e350 ambulance. How to remove a broken off bolt. Recently we came across an issue where one of the alternator bolts snapped off into the block causing the belt to shred and ultimately causing the car to break down. Its best for bolts 14 or larger and the shorter the better but it sure will surprise you. The other portion of the bolt that is stuck inside my block is not sticking out at all so i cannot just grab a wrench and torque it out. This meant either pulling the head to extract or deal with the 4 inches of available space to drill and extract.
For this reason it is important to remove and replace broken bolts from your engine block as quickly as you can. Its the one labeled 3 in this link not the one that clamps the slotted support to adjust belt tension. Try what drh recommends but use a good penetrating fluid and some concentrated heat on whats left of those bolts. This method works great. I believe it was the lower bolt. Luckily i was able to extract it for him by welding another bolt to the threads and removing it from the block.
Only bolts you should have loosened are top and bottom of alt not the bracket. I have a 1989 volvo 2002 raw water cooled if it makes a difference and the bolt that holds the alternator to the block keeps snapping. One of my friends recommended to drill through the center of. A broken bolt can cause the other non broken bolts to weaken by exposing the non broken bolts to excessive pressure as the non broken bolts try to compensate for the broken bolt. This will help you drill into the center of the bolt as closely as possible putting you at less risk of damaging the threads of the broken bolt. You were just given a lesson in hydrogen embrittlement.
Center punch the broken bolt as close to the center as possible. This is driving me nuts.
Gallery of Alternator Bolt Broke In Block
