symbiote

I was taking off the bracket (68 FB 302) and was unscrewing the bolt that holds the bracket to the water body (water pump). The bolt in question is the bottom one out of the 2. Ill post a picture of what the bolt looks like soon and it seems as tho a part of it has broken inside, the part with the threading!! about 0.5 inches worth...When i was unscrewing it..it was a bit tight and Snap it came off...i thought it was a usual stuck bolt breaking free, but when i tried putting it back, it wont go further than a certain point and does not even screw in. I mean if it had broken shouldnt the part where the threadings still exist screw on? does that make sense? Im wondering what to do? how do i fix it or get it out? anyway of doing it without taking off the entire engine?

109jb

If the bolt that broke goes into the water pump body then you have3 choices. First you could replace boththe water pump and the bolt and move on. Second, you could remove the water pump, drill out the broken end of the bolt and re-install. Third, you could try to drill out the broken part of the bolt with the water pump still in the car. I would personally take the first option because drilling the bolt out on the car would be a pain, and if I were going to remove the water pump anyway, I would just replace it with a new one rather than put the old one back on.

JMD

If the bolt is where I think it is you will most likely need to remove the timing cover to get it out... I say this assuming it is one of the long bolts that goes all the way through the cover into the block....

If the bolt screws into the timing cover itself, you may be able to get at it well enough to carefully drill it out and re tap the threads.. Probably need to pull the radiator to do this.

In the process of taking apart the 351 I broke a long water pump bolt that went through the timing cover and threaded into the block.Well it sucked, and it sucked even worse because I could not get the timing cover off, ended up destroying it. What surprised me was that the bolt was not even slightly stuck in the block, I could turn it with my fingers once the timing cover was out of the way. The steel bolt had corroded to the aluminum solid enough that the bolt broke.

Anyway, probably more information than you were looking for...

But the answer here is that you will just have to dive into the project before you know what you are in for.... I know that we are taught from a young age to "look before we leap",,, but sometimes we are required to jump right in, this is likely one of those occasions.

Prepare yourself to remove the radiator, fan, harmonic balancer, water pump, power steering pump, alternator, timing cover,etc. By being prepared to do all of this, if you can get by with doing less,it will seem like a bonus!

symbiote

ouch!!


This is the bolt in its position in the bracket..

http://img143.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img0112pt7.jpg





Here is what the bolt looks like now; it is 4.6 inches long. from bolt head to the end and 4.5 from the base of the bolt head to the end.....dont know what the original size is supposed to be...


http://img151.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img0113fq8.jpg


also is it possible to just "put" the nut back in and secure it with some epoxy? Its very crude but i am going to overhaul the engine in a couple of months...so i dont want to get into it just now...the bracket and alternator are pretty sturdy even with this bolt missing...

symbiote

could anyone please advise? my engine is still half complete and im banking on someone to help me!!

ponyX65

not to be mean but dont half *** it you will regret it.epoxy wont do the jobif you dont have the cash to do the job right let the car sit until you do. towing fee are much more expensive then a few gaskets. most likely you will have to take the hole front of the engeine off

109jb

I agree, no to the epoxy idea. If you want to get to it with the engine in the car then you will probably have to take the grill and radiator out so you can get a drill in ther to drill it out. It is hard to tell from you pictures, but I think that bolt goes into the block, not just into the water pump housing. If it's in the block, I would take the whole engine out rather than risk the block trying to do it with it inside the car. Since you said you were planning to rebuild in a few months anyway, you are probably better off just pulling the engine for rebuild now and have the shop doing the prep work on the block remove the bolt. I know that isn't what you wanted to hear, but that's what I would do.

Jaded

That's happened to me more than once.

Not sure how skilled you are, but here's how I've done it myself. I'm listing the stuff you'll need.

Get yourself a set of High Speed drill bits Ace or True Value carry Dewault which work fine.
Get aCenter punch.
Get yourself a can of Liquid Wrench, not WD-40, you need the parafin.
Get a small set of the tap in Easy Outs, they are driven in, not screwed in.
Take the bolt and get the proper Tap and a Handle.
Get a scan of Anti Sieze for the bolts, you need this anyway.

First, soak the hole in Liquid Wrench. Next measure and get the center of the broken bolt, and center punch it, it takes more than one punch.



Soak it again. Then using the smallest drill bit, which should be a dang sight smaller than the bolt, drill carefully through the center of the bolt. Soak it again with Liquid Wrench. Move up in size on drill until you get the correct size of the Easy Out. Tap in the Easy Out and try turning out the broken threads. If nothing goes move up in size on drill bit and Easy Out. It will definitely come out eventually. Be patient, if you get impatient go drink a beer and come back to it.

When you get the bolt out, spray it again with Liquid Wrench and Start that Tap. Move in a Turn then back it out and clean the tap. Keep it well oiled.

The last time I did this was in June on my daughter's T-bird. Her Harmonic Balancers Bolt broke off in the crank shaft. That's about 125ft lbsworth of torque to break loose and it came right out.

Good luck.

symbiote

Thanks guys!! I shall run out and grab an easy out and keep you guys posted!!

Cheers once again!

JMD

I cant really make out just where the bolt is... but

You said you are rebuilding the engine soon anyway?

If you are not leaking coolant, temporarily relocate the alt bracket to one of the smaller olher bolts and forget about it untill you rebuild....

If it is not leaking....