thettt86

My "good 'ole dependable" has turned into a pain in my . Over all the wonderful holiday traveling, I noticed the waterpump was leaking out of the bottom weep hole. limped it 300 miles home to begin the "easy" task of changing the waterpump. In the process, 2 of 4 through timing cover bolts snapped right off. im thinking no problem, pull the cover off and remove the 2 bolts with some heat and vice-grips. haha yea right. one is still stuck in the timing cover, but after 2 days finally got it to rotate in the timing cover to unthread from the block and remove the timing cover. the other left about an 1/4" sticking out from block. heated, blastered, vice-gripped, pipe wrenched, over-the-bolt easy-out, and then began the drilling. bought an extracter and the drill bit. dulled 2 7/64" drill bits before even an 1/8" in the bolt. went and bought a good ole cobalt drill bit. drilled no problem all the way through. What did ford make their bolts out of????? lol. it rounded off my extracter!!! so went cave man on it with a hammer and a chisel. after an hour, finally got it flush with the block(i miss my tool box, no where to keep it). Bought another cobalt bit that was 2 sizes smaller than 5/16"(which is the bolt that is broken), figureing that it would give me enough to rethread the hole to what the bolt originally was(bought all new stainless bolts to replace when putting back togethor). blastered the hole, began the tapping process. small foward turns and backing out, etc, etc, got good depth of threads so pulled the tap out and pulled all the chunks out with a small screwdriver. ran the tap through one more time(famous last words), i am using a t-handle tap and die set, until it got to were i stopped threading originally.......... then backing out it got stuck...... wouldnt move, being very carefull got it loose then, SNAP!!!! tap broke. a mechanics worse nightmare. i wanted to scream at this point. ive been working on this for about a week, acouple hours after work with only 30 min of daylight, love the time change. So.... now what?

I live in ocala, fl and really want to take it to someone at this point. Any recommondations on someone close, or getting the tap out? tried backing it out with a punch but the tap keeps crumbling and am running out of room to use a punch or anything of that matter to remove it. i mean the hole is only 5/16" lol. i need some insight. i already know im . but any tricks would be helpfull. would rather fix it my self, but at this point am ready to pay someone to fix and finish the job for me. I need my truck back, 20's in the morning and stuck to the motorcycle, yyyyaaaaahhhhhhh. thanks.

farmer12

Aw ****...I've had this happen many a time on the farm and its NEVER easy to get out. Every time I've ever got them out it was with a punch and a small hammer. Just the way you were doing. But I always got lucky and they moved, slowly but surely. Drilling it is out of the question...it's like trying to drill a grade 20 bolt lol. Might ought to talk to a machinist at an engine shop...they may be able to tell you a trick or two.

farmer12

Btw when you do get it out and back together, coat the bolts and threads with anti-seize. Best thing you'll ever do...your prob will never happen again.

Just call me Sean

iTrader: (1)

I like the description of your process. Short version, dammit I did it right!!!

jrh5610

You can use a carbide drill bit to drill the tap out or you can use a tap extractor to get it out as long as the tap isn't shattered down in the hole if its broke off flush the extractor will work. If you are pretty good with a torch you can carefully melt it out but I wouldn't recommend this being that the engine is in the truck.

smokeshow81

Just curious... any of those drill bit you were using left hand thread? So reverse is to drill in... Thats the proper way to get started. That and using a torch on the outside of the hole to expand it. You can also use a liquid called MOOVIT. It'll do just that.

dr_bowtie

i'd keep crumbling the tap and get it out in pieces...

thettt86

farmer i def will coat them with everything from anti-seize to ky warming sensations, lol. hopefuly i never have to go through this again, but if i do and coat them i wont go through the same battle, thanks. Oh yea sean, just wanted everyone to know that i did everything i could do, not like i went out there with a grin and hammer drill. jrh i had no idea there was a tap extracter until this morning. they asked me how many plumes, which is 4, but i will take them a couple days cause they have to order it. its only $15, and i thought cobalt was the hardest drill bit you could buy next to diamond tipped. but didnt see any carbide bits when up there at the hardware store. is there a specific place to shop for them? Smoke, i looked everwhere for a reversable drill bit, i mean harbour freight, harware stores, autozone, no luck. i guess where i live everyone favors the hammer drill and grin method. i see a snap-on truck driving around but can never get close enough to get his #, i wanted to start with the reversed drill bits, def. and bowtie, if all else fails ill def go back to the cave man method, have to do something.

jrh5610

I work in a machine shop so they are easy for me to get. I've seen them in hardware stores normally around the eze-outs, but they should be able to order one for you.

bubbabud

Cobalt is just a fancy gold colerd coating they put on cheap chinese drill bits. Side note Harber freight is great for tool you will use once and throw away or to loan to the grandkids so they dont lose your real tools bubbabud