Sheared Upper wishbone bolt- Aluminium Upright

[foz01]

Just been fighting with the car remving the uprights to get them machined to suit new calipers, now did one of the Upper wishbone bolts not shear clean off leaving the threaded part in situ in said upright

Is it a goner or is it recovereable- the alloy uprights are soft as fook

Any bright ideas?!

cheers


Any good mechanics fancy a homer in my garage as ventures like these remind me why i hate working on cars LMAO!

[BiggestNizzy]

Always possible to remove

I guess there is nothing sticking out to get a set of grips onto ?

Soak it in diesel or wd40 to try and get some lubrication in there then you could drill and tap it / try easy outs (although they are rubbish) or drill it out being very very carefull

[woody]

I'd be tempted to EDM it; if the drill wanders at all it'll tear right through the alloy. EDM will be more expensive,but worth it not to damage the upright. Of course an upright so damaged could be welded to build up the material and machined back again, but I'd not be confident that the end result would not have warped to some degree.

[BiggestNizzy]

EDM will be more expensive

Not when you have a room full of them

If it was a broken Tap then yes EDM, it's way better than using stelite drills etc.

The screw should drill pretty easy but to drill the thing out completly accuracy is the key, unlike a tap you cannot just remove the core.

If your in no hurry and can get the hub down to Killie I will get it out at work.

[foz01]

Yeah that was my concern as I font have a bench drill over a vice so wouldn't be confident I wouldn't mess up the alloy, yeah nothing protruding out at all although it was with big bar that I was removing it, never budged the half a turn but it sheared so it's stuck good and proper, cheers for the offer though, but will get the other bits machines up here so will hopefully get them done at the same place

[shortie2]

Its too late now but in future if you have steel bolts into alloy castings that wont move with a std spanner heat them up with an electric heatgun ,as hot as you can get, that usually does the trick.
As for your present dilemma , the upright needs to be mounted with the broken bolt vertically and then mounted in either a good quality vertical drill press or a bridgeport to ensure that the bolt is drilled out without wandering into the alloy.

[BiggestNizzy]

Yeah that was my concern as I font have a bench drill over a vice so wouldn't be confident I wouldn't mess up the alloy, yeah nothing protruding out at all although it was with big bar that I was removing it, never budged the half a turn but it sheared so it's stuck good and proper, cheers for the offer though, but will get the other bits machines up here so will hopefully get them done at the same place

From memory the holes are thru so you should be able to but drill down from the rear (que drilling from the rear gags) from memory it's M10 so a 8.5 drill should take out the stud only leaving the threads then it's just a case of shoving some taps down the back to break it all up. time and patience is the key, spent a few years doing this sort of thing as an apprentice so not difficult just don't go barging in as I don't think there is enough material around it to insert it.

[mckeann]

front or rear upright Lowell??

[woody]

Yeah that was my concern as I font have a bench drill over a vice so wouldn't be confident I wouldn't mess up the alloy, yeah nothing protruding out at all although it was with big bar that I was removing it, never budged the half a turn but it sheared so it's stuck good and proper, cheers for the offer though, but will get the other bits machines up here so will hopefully get them done at the same place

From memory the holes are thru so you should be able to but drill down from the rear (que drilling from the rear gags) from memory it's M10 so a 8.5 drill should take out the stud only leaving the threads then it's just a case of shoving some taps down the back to break it all up. time and patience is the key, spent a few years doing this sort of thing as an apprentice so not difficult just don't go barging in as I don't think there is enough material around it to insert it.

The holes are clear, and I think M8. If you're drilling it out, I'd be tempted to get a die grinder in first and take off any high spots that may lead to the drill wandering.

I'm now regretting not chasing out the threads on my uprights when I had it apart last week as I considered.

[foz01]

It's a front neil, what's best to use to avoid this happening? Copper slip ok with ally?

[BiggestNizzy]

If you can mount it all up solid I would clean out the rear of the hole with a tap so you can see what your doing it should go in easy then put it in your drill press and line up the hole it is important that the part is flat with an appropriate sized drill (M8 is 6.8 M10 is 8.5) that way you can find the center use this drill to machine a center in the back of the screw, I would then use a smaller drill 4-5mm and drill out the center of the screw, that should let you try an easy out.

If all fails start moving up drill sizes and let the drill do the cutting, use plenty of cutting fluid, checking to see the drill hasn't wandered and isn't damaging the threads if it looks like it has STOP we would need to use something like a slot drill in that case and you need it clamped really solid for that.

anyway once you have drilled it out start running your taps down the hole use a first cut tap to try and break it up better and alternate between that and a spiral flute tap (I find these better at breaking things up the start tap is better for lining up and cleaning) don't force anything just alternate all the taps until it's clear

Et voila then clean out all the opther holes before reassembly and use plenty of Duralac to stop the corrosion between disimilar metals.

[Gourlay83]

If you can mount it all up solid I would clean out the rear of the hole with a tap so you can see what your doing it should go in easy then put it in your drill press and line up the hole it is important that the part is flat with an appropriate sized drill (M8 is 6.8 M10 is 8.5) that way you can find the center use this drill to machine a center in the back of the screw, I would then use a smaller drill 4-5mm and drill out the center of the screw, that should let you try an easy out.

If all fails start moving up drill sizes and let the drill do the cutting, use plenty of cutting fluid, checking to see the drill hasn't wandered and isn't damaging the threads if it looks like it has STOP we would need to use something like a slot drill in that case and you need it clamped really solid for that.

anyway once you have drilled it out start running your taps down the hole use a first cut tap to try and break it up better and alternate between that and a spiral flute tap (I find these better at breaking things up the start tap is better for lining up and cleaning) don't force anything just alternate all the taps until it's clear

Et voila then clean out all the opther holes before reassembly and use plenty of Duralac to stop the corrosion between disimilar metals.

I had the same trouble when i stripped my Hubs down. I did the same as above

Alan

[foz01]

Its too late now but in future if you have steel bolts into alloy castings that wont move with a std spanner heat them up with an electric heatgun ,as hot as you can get, that usually does the trick.

Now on the rears and the sames problem, much more force and i can see more shearage when you say heat gun you talking about a run of the mill black and decker type thing- used for stripping paint, or is a Mini gas blowtorch thing the way to go?

also is it the steel or alumium your heating- presumably the steel to get it hot enought to expand, cool then contract and hey presto it comes out?

Also how fooking awkward are these bolts with the dampers in there

[shortie2]

paint stripping electric heat gun
prob 2 or 3 mins on the alloy , you should hardly be able to touch it, also initially try to tighten the bolt and then slacken it
Take your time , if it doesnt slacken first time allow it to cool then heat it and try again , patience is the key

[Gourlay83]

Its too late now but in future if you have steel bolts into alloy castings that wont move with a std spanner heat them up with an electric heatgun ,as hot as you can get, that usually does the trick.

Now on the rears and the sames problem, much more force and i can see more shearage when you say heat gun you talking about a run of the mill black and decker type thing- used for stripping paint, or is a Mini gas blowtorch thing the way to go?

also is it the steel or alumium your heating- presumably the steel to get it hot enought to expand, cool then contract and hey presto it comes out?

Also how fooking awkward are these bolts with the dampers in there

You have to heat the bolt itself, the bolts expands and loosens the metal lock on the threads.

just had an argument with someone about this actually. So maybe everyone won't agree but i have done this a gizilion times, only way it works for me.

Your in Aberdeen right ?