Nobody with any skills worth a damn is going to come to the house....

Yes, there are some mobile machinists that specialize in bolt extraction.

I wouldnt just lean on some mobile mechanic, im going to speculate that most suck at it....

I was a ford engine mechanic at a dealer, extracted lots & lots of seized & broken bolts, was part of my specialty.


You need special equipment, a real torch, sharp bits, etc..

Nobody that is good at this is going to want to do it on their back, trans will need to come out if its still in the vehicle.

 

If your un-aware of any machine shops / engine rebuilders in your area.
Go down to the nearby ford dealer & talk to the old engine guy, he will tell you who use to do their machine work back in the day...

 

What drill bits would you recomend? I'm assuming nothing from Harbor Freight or Home Depot.

 

I told you what I recommend at this point.
You have a broken extractor in there which is hardened metal, you cant drill through an extractor.
The more you mess with it, the more costly it will be.

The bolt is seized & will take some serious equipment & skill to salvage the threads.

You can also break drill bits into the remaining bolt to make matters worse.

 

Don't get me wrong...I'm taking it to a machine shop, I'm done working on it myself. The question about drill bits was for future reference. I was wondering since you were an engine guy what miscellaneous tools you used.

 

I use to use cobalt drill bits from the tool trucks, mostly snap-on,
No im not a snap on fanboy, far from.
But a good bit goes a long way.

Dont recall who turned me on to these guys but they offer a good product & very knowledgable when it comes to durability of drill bits & drilling metal.
I was always told by my mentor to use cobalt.

When I acquired about some bits, these guys explained that cobalt is brittle & majority of their customers do better with the moly....

theyre cheap, they work

When it comes to drilling bolts:
you need to center punch the very center!!! need to start in the middle, thats what makes you successful when **** goes south & you need to drill bigger, & bigger,
Also want to drill all the way through the bolt if its seized.
At some point you can keep going bigger until its super thin & will just crumble out like its aluminum foil if done right with heat.
DONT EVER heat an extractor, that weakens it & makes it brittle.
Need to spin the drill super slow, just fast enough to pull metal flakes, you spin to fast youre not accomplishing anything.
Also apply alot of pressure but dont break the bit, fine line.....
Always lubricate the bit. These guys actually have a cutting honey that I use.

They also have vortex bits that always looked appealing from my research when it comes to drilling metal, very aggressive, but never used them

My go to bit where I start is 1/8"
Works, you can apply a bit of pressure but you need to know the fine line or you snap the extractor.
1/8" extractor wont work on anything seized, but its a starting point.
Smaller the bit, easier it cuts into the center, go larger from there.

I dont use spiral extractors & also only use quality extractors, a must.
I use a straight flute style by rigid.

Ive seen a similar situation to yours only once.
Think it was a starter bolt on a mustang manual trans bell housing.

It was ****ing stuck!!!! Seized.
Part of the bolt was exposed to I was able to torch the hell out of it with a real torch & get a stud puller on it, nothing.
welded a nut on it, nothing....

Cuz the bell housing is separate from the transmission I also blasted down to the local machine shop & had them deal with it.
Wasnt worth chewing up my bits & wasting my time.

Machine shop also couldnt get it out & the drilled & installed a time-sert.

Since then, the dealer bought me a master kit of both standard & metric time-serts.
Ive installed hundreds of time seats for various reasons.
pulled threads in cylinder heads for exhaust manifolds
aluminum oil pan drain plug threads worn out . damaged
pulled threads from t-stat housings.
sparkplug hole repairs
etc

 

I just wrote a freaking novel & site says not visible until mods approve, has links.....
Im going to be pissed if it just goes poof & vanishes.
I didnt copy....
We shall see!

 

The bolt could be seized due to dissimilar metals, starter ground, current, etc...
Like I said ive seen it.
When theyre seized, you cant just use a tiny extractor.
Need the big boys!
need to drill & enlarge the entire bolt without damaging any of the threads.

machine shop may get lucky & just get it out with welding a nut on whats left.

 

I went and talked to the engine machine guy, he won't touch it. I guess he doesn't even have a HE-LOCK that would hold the transmission. He gave me some suggestions though. He said try a Dremel and create a track in between the extractor and the bolt then manual hammer and chisel them both out....maybe. He also mentioned drilling through the blind hole from the other direction and attacking it that way. I didn't get to the Ford dealership today, I'll do that tomorrow and see what they would recommend. Sorry for the lack of details but he just kept saying I can't help you. I even looked for a used tranny lowest price I found was $1300. Even just a tranny case is $400 then I gotta pay someone to put in the guts. Even though I got kicked in the ***** today I'm still confident this can be fixed without breaking the bank. Thoughts...

 

my links didnt freaking post, lame...

https://www.harryepstein.com/pages/s...roducts&page=1


https://www.harryepstein.com/pages/search-results-page?q=left%20hand%20drill%20bit



https://www.harryepstein.com/pages/search-results-page?q=vortex%20drill%20bit