Broken transmission mount bolt

[EvilTheCat]

Just as the title says, I have a broken transmission mount bolt.

Here it is with the mount held up to it.

Does anybody have any suggestions to fix this. I hate the EZ-outs or reverse threaded bits. I have rarely had success with these. I doubt they'd work in this case, since I couldn't budge the bolt with my 2 foot breaker bar. I put lots of penetrating oil on the bolts about a week ago, but haven't re-applied any since (probably the cause of my problem). I should have probably used heat also but didn't think about it until it was too late.

Here's what I'm thinking:
There is about a 1/4" to 3/8" of the bolt sticking out of the tranny. It is about flush with the new mount. I could just put the bolt in on the driver side and weld the mount to the broken end of the stud sticking out on the passenger side. Do you think it would be feasible to do this without damaging the aluminum transmission? I know I'd "permanently" have that mount attached to my tranny, but at least it would be attached. At this point I just don't care if it has to be cut off to remove it next time. I just don't want the shaking to be worse than it already is, since I've decided to give up on the engine mounts.

Here's a view of the nut that needs to come off the underside to remove the passenger engine mount (you can't even see the driver side).

It looks like you have put an extension through the frame in order to reach it.

I haven't worked on a Ford for a long time, and now I'm remembering how much I used to curse the engineers at FoMoCo for the way they designed things.

Tips for people putting in a new tranny mount:
-Just remove the cross member. It's only three bolts on each side, but it'll save you so much trouble because you'll be able to get directly under the bolts that go into the transmission rather than trying to work around the cross member.
-Penetrating oil applied multiple times over a few days prior to even trying to remove these bolts will save you lots of trouble. They will have galvanic corrosion because of the dissimilar metals.
-Using a torch on the bolts just enough to heat them up will help them come out easier.
-Always wash the mud out from under your truck before starting a project that may require you to crawl around underneath it.

 

[yavapaires]

Sounds to me like you should just put it together the best you can, sell it, or trade it for a Toyota. Every make is a damn nightmare to work on anymore.

 

[drbenz]

The first thing I would try is to heat it followed by penetrating oil several times then give it a couple of hard wacks with a big hammer (careful not to break the case) and try to see if it will move with vise grips or stud puller.

 

[drdoom]

The first thing I would try is to heat it followed by penetrating oil several times then give it a couple of hard wacks with a big hammer (careful not to break the case) and try to see if it will move with vise grips or stud puller.

Yes, and maybe you could button-weld a nut on the remaining portion, so you could get the wrench on there.

 

[EvilTheCat]

I've never seen stud pullers before. I just looked into it and I think I'll give it a try. Applying more penetrating oil this morning and I'll give it a go tonight.

I'm not going to sell it yet since I've only owned it for about 2 months. Plus I'm still in the middle of replacing the heads since I had 2 burnt valves and 3 cracks in one head and 1 in the other. Somehow it still ran though. I bought it cheap knowing it needed work.

 

[imp]

I bought it cheap knowing it needed work.

The key issue here. If one knows in advance that problems exist, possibly difficult and expensive ones, the weight of risk falls upon the buyer.

After-the-fact placing of blame on the manufacturer is like trying to blame someone else for one's own errors of judgement, is it not?

Broken bolt: Aluminum housing, if room allows on the mount, which I think it does, drill a hole next to the existing bolt hole, inboard, about 5/8-inch center to center, "spot" that new hole on the housing, drill and thread a new hole in the housing, not too deep, perhaps 3/4-inch max., a 3/8-16 grade 5 or 8 bolt will suffice, and the mount will again be adequately secure. Leave the broken bolt alone. Attempting to drill it out will likely cause "walking" of the bit, and damage to the housing.

Just my 2 cents. imp

 

[1996BLKBauer]

Weld a piece of pipe, or solid bar of steel to it, put some pen lube on it, and smack it a bunch to shock it loose. it looks like you have enough room to weld something on there. Also maybe use an impact gun too.

 

[drbenz]

I've never seen stud pullers before. I just looked into it and I think I'll give it a try. Applying more penetrating oil this morning and I'll give it a go tonight.

I'm not going to sell it yet since I've only owned it for about 2 months. Plus I'm still in the middle of replacing the heads since I had 2 burnt valves and 3 cracks in one head and 1 in the other. Somehow it still ran though. I bought it cheap knowing it needed work.

They have a nice set at Northern Tool, 25 bucks for it.
http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200381622_200381622
or this one from Harbor Freight is even cheaper:
http://www.harborfreight.com/1-2-half-inch-drive-stud-extractor-94640.html

 

[EvilTheCat]

After-the-fact placing of blame on the manufacturer is like trying to blame someone else for one's own errors of judgement, is it not?

I am not blaming the manufacturer for the bolt breaking. Nor am I mad that I am working on my truck. I bought it with the intent of repairing and modifying it. If you read the whole post I admit to breaking the bolt being my fault for not oiling it enough or using heat. I AM blaming their engineering team for choosing to put those bolts directly above the cross member, so it has to be remove in order to get at them. I am blaming them for putting the engine mount bolts directly above the front differential, so people have to drop it in order to change them. I'm blaming them for putting the EGR tube directly in front of one of the exhaust manifold bolts, so it has to come off first to get the manifold unbolted. I am blaming them for putting 2 different upper control arms on each side. It's the little design flaws that frustrate me working on this truck and the 2 Bronco II's that I owned years ago.

Thanks for the links drbenz. I am going to go to Sears to look for one of these pullers. I went to Harbor Freight , but they didn't have anything like these, just the reverse threaded bits. These I hate because they require you to drill into the bolt in oder to remove it. As imp said the drill bit tends to walk off the hardened steel bolt and thus drill into the aluminum.

Welding will be my last option. If I can't get it out tonight I'll probably just weld the mount to the stud just to have it back together.

 

[EvilTheCat]

Sears and Harbor Freight suck. Looks like I'm ordering something off the internet. I'll be going out of town until Monday, so I can wait for a puller to arrive in the mail. At this point I just want to see if it'll work. I'll update again once I get it out or welded to the mount.

Here's the puller I chose to get.

 

[EvilTheCat]

Well I got the stud extractor from Summit. The teeth are too far in to grab the end of the stud, so it was useless for this application. For some reason they sent a bottle of 5 hour energy with it, which I quickly consumed. I looked on Harbor freight's website and found out they did in fact have a stud extractor at the local store for $5.99 even though one of the employees told me they didn't have anything like it last time I was there. I tried it out but rounded the teeth off it without budging the busted bolt.

I decide I would just weld the new mount to the busted stud and pray that I never need to remove it.
I practiced on the old mount with the head of the busted bolt because I've only had a welder for 2 months.

Here's the mount welded to the stud. I ground it down to put the exhasut hanger over it.

Here's the exhaust hanger welded on also. I know it's ugly, but it'll hold.