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i have a big problem. i own a piece of crap sohc and it just declared war on me. a couple of days ago, i kept hearing this grinding noise coming from under the hood. today i finally decided to take a look at it. well i come to find out that the crank pulley is loose, so i bust out the 10mm and start to tighten it. well to my bad luck, one of the suckers breaks off and the whole bolt is still stuck in there. the only thing that came off was the head of the bolt. does anyone have any advice or suggestions? has this happened to anyone before? any help would be awesome.
thanx, luis

Is there any part of the bolt sticking out at all? If so you can try to get vice grips in there and try to ease it out. But if not, im not really sure what you can do since the space is pretty tight at that point.

nope. there is no part of the bolt sticking out. that's why i'm getting stressed out. do you think i should just take the pulley off? maybe i can have a little more clearance...? i dunno, i just don't want to break any of the other bolts.

there is a few things you can do. you can try slotting the part of the bolt that you can see with a chisel and make a slit in the end of the bolt. and try using the biggest flat head you can get to fit to loosen it up slowley. you can try pulling the pully off to get at it easer. or you can just get out the drill, and drill it out. just make sure to drill as straight as possable and use a smaller bit than the bolt. unless you can find another pully to use. thoes are pretty much the options.

i would try taking the pully off first

torque wrench? lol don't they make little kits for getting broke off screws and stuff like that out... i swear i saw sumin like that at like sears or sumin...

Originally posted by dj inferno:
torque wrench? lol don't they make little kits for getting broke off screws and stuff like that out... i swear i saw sumin like that at like sears or sumin...

Yup. Any Sears store should carry this for $20 or less as part of their Craftsman tool line. It's a set of 1/2 dozen asst. size sockets that instead of fitting over a regular bolthead or nut, have twisted grooves inside that will "bite" into the stripped or broken piece as you turn your socket wrench on it counter clockwise. Pretty handy.

Guys read again though, he is saying that the head is completely off. I have a few of those sockets that take off damaged bolt heads but they wont do anything if the head isnt there.

Sorry bout that. Must of been answering while on auto pilot. Ok, this is a job for some pretty precise drill activity. Here are two links that describe different methods & tools used better than I probably can.

http://www.madelectrical.com/workshop/broken-bolts.shtml

http://www.truebite.com/remove/

i read the post lol i just thought they still made sumin like that lol