ChargerLighting

A while ago, upon putting my front sway bar back up, I over-tightened one of the bolts on the frame & snapped it off.
There's nothing sticking out to grab onto & I don't see any way to access the nut or broken bolt?
The only thing I can think of is to cut myself a 'door' on the frame & access it that way? Or cut out the section where the nut is & weld a new section (from another truck) in with the nut..?

The truck is a '95 Ram 1500 4x4 BTW....

Doj Dewd

go buy a slightly larger diameter bolt, then drill out the old one, and tap the hole to match the thread of the new bolt.

nickg

or just weld along the edge of the bracket, if in the future you should ever need to remove the bar just grind off the weld

A. Bomb

Thats a cobble job if I ever heard one. I would be beyond ****** if I bought a truck that had been repaired like that.

Did the bolt go in hard, or did you just overtorque it? If it went in easy, there is a good chance you could get it out with a reverse drill bit and some easy outs.

nickg

welding is a much better choice than the OP had of cutting a hole in the frame, and unless your gifted with using easyouts you will more than likely snap them off in the hole and now your screwed as you cant drill them out, assuming he is from a rust belt, treat an easy out as a last ditch effort not the first
the best suggestion was to drill it out and tap in new threads, 20yrs fixing military junk and seeing lots of techs snap off easy outs, has shown me the light, 8 outta ten times they break the easy out cause the bolt is siezed in there, (agreed if not siezed in the easy out likely will work) I've found the best way to remove a broken stud is to weld a nut on the end of it 8out of 10 times the broken bolt/stud is removed

its only a sway bar mount!! something that rarely if ever in the trucks service life will ever be removed

...he, he I'm good at cobbling I guess

ChargerLighting

I remember it giving me problems when I tried to thread it in, so I used the 3/4" impact on it & snapped it.
Its' REALLY stuck in there.
For the record I'm really not into grinding off frames or welding unless its' absolutely necessary & there's really no other way out.
After I posted I thought of welding the front part of the sway bar bracket on as the only time that part would be removed is to change a sway bar bushing...& thats' not too often (if ever).

I'll try drilling it, but, I'm about 0 for 3 using easy outs, etc.

The whole front frame sections, basically from the shock forward on the passenger side & the steering box forward on the driver's side has been replaced & re-welded on anyways; maybe it'll match!

Junk Man

Buy some left handed bits & drill it out. It may back out on its own or you may end up going to the next size. The left side of my bar came down shortly after I got the truck back from the shop that installed a new box. I ended up drilling & taping. Original size is 10mm (I think). I went up to a 12 MM. Fixing it was easier than driving back to the shop that fubared. I now clean bolt holes and bolt threads &/or use new bolts. They stretch & are easy to cross thread - especially if a shop is trying to make time. I'll have to go back to doing my own work.

dkenny

like Junk man..use a left hand drill bit...

without those..
do have a metal cutting torch..cut a hole in the bolt..then drill in slight larger sizes until you're close enough to use tap ( for the existing size)..USE WITH CARE..they also break. the tap will remove the extra frozen steel while it cuts new threads..

if you're really good with a torch you could to what my Uncle did on my tranny..steel bolt in an AL housing..yep..he burned out the steel but left the AL alone..ok I did need to use through bolt..

-dkenny

fcduffy76

If it broke flush you can hold a nut over the hole and use a wire welder to weld the busted bolt to the inside of the nut and then spin it out just like it was the original bolt. I've done it several times to get twisted of things out.
Just don't weld to the threads or anything around the threads.

Russ Roth

All of the above are good ideas that can and do work. I have another one you might try along with the others. That is to heat the bolt and hold a candle against the bolt and allow the heat to suck the wax in. I have not done it but others on another forum that have say it works every time. This is usually on rusted bolts so may not work as well on this but maybe worth a try.

Doj Dewd

suck the wax in and then what???
he has nothing to grab onto . . .

Russ Roth

In that case you would have to use it with one of the other ways of removing broken bolts. It may help them work better, especially an EZ out.

Grider Pirate

If you have the equipment, this is THE way to go. I use this method with success a LOT. I've found that it seems to work best if you get a wrench on it and back it out before it cools completely. DO NOT use and impact. Turn the bolt out fairly slowly.
Easy outs? I'm ZERO for many. I almost always end up breaking the easy out off in the hole.

ChargerLighting

Quick update; I dropped the bar down so I could try to work w/this broken bolt.
I was going to just weld the swaybar bracket to the frame, so I went to mount the bar back up onto the frame....
I found out both of the nuts (or whatever they are) in the frame on the driver's side have ALSO stripped out...
Reaching the end of my rope, I just pulled the whole sway bar off the truck & said screw it for now.

Thanks for all the ideas though, I appreciate it!!

Junk Man

Drill & tap to the next size. They are metric 8 or 10 mm. Measure the pitch & match what was in there. Look at the other side if necessary. Buy a thread pitch gauge., the PROPER tap and associated drill if you don't have them.