I got myself in a pickle. I was changing the front differential fluid on my 4 wheeler and ran into a problem. When tightening the drain plug bolt at the bottom, I overtightened it and snapped the head off. about 3/4 of the bolt remains in the hole and it's about 1/8" recessed in the hole. I bought an extractor but it was un-successful because when I tried to drill the pilot hole, the drillbit just turned the bolt screwing it further into the hole. I super-glued a nail with a round head to the bolt and was able to turn it out a little bit but it got to a point where that's no longer working. Its a small bolt (10mm) so I don't have a lot of room to work with. Is there any kind of tool that will dig into the remaining piece of the bolt while the drill is in reverse? Thanks in advance guys

 

i know its small but you might try to ratary ball file the surface before you pilot drill. it may just be enough to make your pilot bit from spinning the bolt in further. other than that id say you might just have to tear it apart further. good luck

 

if there is a cover on the diff then just thread it right through let it fall to the bottom of the case then just take it out. You can try using "easy outs" there are drill bits that have the cutting edge going the other way and will bite in reverse on your drill. Those are pretty much your 3 options.

 

Was trying to avoid tearing the whole front end apart hehe...I'll keep an eye out for one of those drill bits, I work at Lowe's...hopefully we have them.

Thanks.

 

Get some of those Grab-It bolt/screw removers that are on the tv commercials. My aunt got some for my dad kind of as a joke, but they really do work well. Ive used them a few times with good results.

 

Go to Lowes, look for a bolt/screw extractor. Should be about $20 for a set of like 5 of them, including the drill bits.

 

If the threads are not messed up and the broken piece will turn here's a trick. Use a small punch and a small hammer to spin the bolt out until you can grab the head. Position the punch on a high spot on the broken piece and hold it as parallel to the head surface and tangent to the closest edge as possible. LIGHTLY tap on the end of the punch. When you have everything lined up right a light tap should spin the bolt. Keep tapping until it is out.

 

Use a left handed drill bit. If the drill bit doesn't back it out just go right through and then use an easy-out.

 

X2... It does work!

 

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