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Broken Subframe Bolt

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Old Jul 12th, 2018, 23:35   #41
AidXC90
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Quote:
Originally Posted by luggsey View Post
Did you see what tools and bits he used for the job?
I know it caused you grief but it's really interesting!
Last bolt I snapped off was on the bearing retainer cover on my Landy.
That was a weld on nut job but was bloody hard.
I was interested to watch him too, luggsey. Since I was around I was also looking at the top of the hole, both to hold my light to help him see better and to tell him if I saw anything coming out of the hole.
He first used a larger drill bit than mine - must've been about 10 or 12 mm, then some sort of fancy reamer tool made of some sort of hard metal to grind the rest away. It had a long, thin shaft with a sort of grooved, enlarged oval bulb tip - that was very noisy indeed. Then once the remains of the bolt were thin enough he used a small metal chisel type thing to hammer between walls of the bolt and the hole and collapse the bolt in on itself. It came out pretty easily after that, or at least he made it look easy. I'll post a pic two of the bits of bolt tomorrow. Then he just tapped and 3D coiled it. Easy-peasy.
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Old Jul 13th, 2018, 20:31   #42
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Wow. Thank goodness. I've been holding my breath for days.
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Old Jul 13th, 2018, 21:57   #43
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Originally Posted by gmonag View Post
Wow. Thank goodness. I've been holding my breath for days.
Yes, it's been a stressful experience for a greenhorn such as me. Thanks again for all your support and advice, everyone.

The car has been off the road for months with the engine hanging from a support beam and a garage full of bits. The seized bolt was the last straw but, as someone once said, if you're going through hell, keep going. It's no place to stop!

Today I ordered all the necessary stretch bolts from Volvo to enable me to start rebuilding the brakes, steering and suspension.

Busy week coming up for me!
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Old Jan 21st, 2019, 17:16   #44
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Hey Guys,

I recently had the snapped subframe bolt issue while I was lowering the subframe to rebuild my 4T65E gearbox. I went in a different direction to get it out and I didn't have a great deal of room to drill it out upside down and I was pretty sure I'd mess it up.

I decided to cut out a window on the chasis leg to reveal the subframe bolt sleeve and see what I was dealing with.

The sleeve is attached to a secondary bracket and they're both spotwelded to the side of the chasis leg but the secondary bracket extends all the way to the end of the chasis leg and is sandwiched between two other bit of metal and is spot welded together.

First steps for me was to drill out the spot welds then I decided to cut out the secondary bracket so I could remove the entire subframe sleeve and have better access to remove the broken bolt. I ended up taking the removed sleeve to a engineering company locally who removed the remains of the bolt without damaging any of it and preserving the threads. Funny thing is that only around of inch of that sleeve has threads right down near the collar you can see around the sleeve.

I've attached some pics so you can see what it looks like in there.

Pic 1 - Subframe bolt sleeve and bracket seen through the cut out window
Pic 2 - Sleeve and bracket cut out
Pic 3 - If you look really hard you can see the threads stick out from the sleeve half way down.

John.
Attached Images
File Type: jpg Pic1.jpg (266.8 KB, 75 views)
File Type: jpg Pic2.jpg (205.4 KB, 75 views)
File Type: jpg Pic3.jpg (203.6 KB, 76 views)

Last edited by Steelej; Jan 21st, 2019 at 17:42.
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Old Jan 21st, 2019, 19:23   #45
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I assume you have the means of welding it all back up?

Well done! Nightmare job.
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Old Jan 21st, 2019, 22:14   #46
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Yes, it's already welded back in and car is back together

John
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Old Jan 22nd, 2019, 19:32   #47
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Sounds like he used a carbide 'gurrier' going by your description of the end. Great tool in the correct hands. Terrifying tool in the wrong hands. Glad it worked out for you!
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Old Feb 20th, 2019, 17:12   #48
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Had this happen to mine at weekend whilst fitting bush inserts. Sheared whilst undoing. Did a temporary fix with a 42mm long nut in m14 x 2mm pitch. Wound 20mm onto stud with loctite then put a 35mm m14 bolt into the remaining 20mm. Used a cut down socket as a spacer washer as the nut protruded. Allows it to be driven to work where hopefully they can drill it out on the lift. If not may have to go with the welding method.

No one would touch it without being on a lift. Not even two thread specialist (one ex volvo tech) or a volvo specialist up the road that describes itself as a motor engineer. He actually said wouldn't do it if I got it on his ramps as he knows what a pig of a job it is. Definitely not worth doing this job unless sub frame absolutely has to come off.
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Old Aug 15th, 2021, 06:00   #49
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I have this unfortunate issue. I’m curious to find out who had this issue and was able to successfully get out a broken subframe bolt. Here and another forum I have read that those that have attempted themselves to drill out wound up drilling into the threads. I’m wondering if I followed certain steps it would secure me success even though I have zero experience with using a drill. I was thinking of using a drill guide like this which I don’t think they used:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3diRPXWkx68


Or am I being naive to think this and to just take it to a pro if a job like this involves experience which I greatly lack

Here are some quotes that I find discouraging:


JamesG1980 said: “many hours spent sorting that out and not something i'd ever want to repeat.”

gmonag said: “ Aaaargh - nightmare! There are pros out there that will travel to you and remove the bolt. You might want to consider using them before you make the job worse or even impossible “

dstc said: “I don't like drilling out bolts, too messy, not enough space, working on your back and you can very easily get it wrong.”

Ollyd said: He actually said wouldn't do it if I got it on his ramps as he knows what a pig of a job it is. Definitely not worth doing this job unless sub frame absolutely has to come off. “
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