Hey guys--it's 4 AM here and I'm stymied by the last motor mount bolt on the driver's side (upper left quadrant). I wrecked two sockets (one 15mm 12 point and one 15mm 6 point) and I doubt that buying another 6 point will solve this situation.

Am I down to hammering on a 14mm socket, or do you have another idea?

 

It is stripped or rounded?

Don't use 12 points on tight bolts or bolts you can't get a solid angle on unless you want to round the heads.

 

Don't cause yourself more problems. Go get a stripped bolt/nut removing set for a 3/8 drive ratchet and a snipe + lots of bolt blaster. Hope this helps. Had the same problem the other day myself.

 

So you rounded out the head using a 12 point 1st. Thats a no no. Always use 6 point, 12 points are for u-joint shakles, thats it (and for hammering them onto rounded bolts).

Now that the damage is done though, the easiest way would be to hammer on one size smaller metric (standard is too large of a jump) 12 point. If that does not work, I'm afraid you do not want to know whats next.

Also, before you hammer on the socket, hit the head of the bolt with one very swift, very hard crack. This tends to loosen them up a bit. If you can, connect a impact to the thing. I think impacts remove stuck bolts much better. Instead of a slow gradual torque of a ratchet where you are likely to round the bolt head when removing it, the impact is a violent hammer twisting motion.

Good luck! That sure is one shitty place to round out a bolt!

 

Make sure you use the 18-20" extension and go up through the A arm to get at that bolt, it lines up better than trying to get the ratchet right up there. If you already did that, then the other suggestions might work. I've had good luck with CRC Freeze off penetrating oil. It might help loosen it up some before you take your next stab at it. Good luck.

 

You need engineering experience...


They sell sockets for dealing with stripped bolt heads, usually pretty cheap for a set. They cut into the head for some grip.

 

A big-*** torch?

Good luck, Fuzzy. This is the kind of thing that would happen to me. Ugh!

 

Thanks for the input. I think my only recourse at this point is to wait until I pull the motor and weld a socket to the bolt to get it out.

Thus far I've tried using a brand new 6-point 15mm hardened impact wrench socket, after spraying penetrating oil on the bolt and waiting 45 minutes for it to soak in, and hammering a 12-point 14mm socket onto the bolt.

Btw, the "rounded bolt" sockets kits (or at least the one I tried, which was endorsed by Popular Mechanics) seem to be too flimsy for this kind of stuff--for instance, the amount of torque I've been exerting on my 3', 3/8" extension has been twisting its metal shaft by over 90 degrees.

 

If you go the route of welding a socket to the bolt/nut, be careful of which style you use. I had an experience where the heat from the welder made the socket brittle and it shattered on the nut. Then I couldnt get a new socket over the nut because of weld/socket leftovers. Maybe buy an extra socket and try welding it to something on the bench first.

You could try some of that freeze off spray - I think CRC makes it. Anther alternative would be a torch or cutoff tool of some sort if you can get in there?

 

I gave it one more try--hammered the 14mm on there all the way up to motor, smoothly cranked it over with my breaker bar, and when it popped, the socket almost perfectly rounded off the bolt. No rotation on the bolt (blue paint still lined up with the motor).

I'm actually starting to doubt whether it *can* be removed. That bolt might as well be welded there. I've already confirmed that there's no load on the motor mounts--the lower end of the motor mount can be freely moved. I would try to drill out the bolt, but I'd have to resleeve the opening, since a countersink would not be sufficient to help remove the bolt shaft.

I'll probably leave one Creative Steel mount on the passenger side and the OEM mount on the other side. Added compression resistance on the passenger side should help prevent the driver's side mount from shearing.

 

Hey, out of curiosity, do you think I'll have problems pulling the motor out with one of the mounts still attached to the motor?

 

shouldnt have a problem pulling the motor with the mount attached. i pulled mine from the top once the tranny and bellhousing were off..came right out

 

The top set of extractors is what I'm talkin about, throw a 1/2" breaker bar on it or an impact.

 

Bunch of suckers.

 

This makes me not want to change my MM until I HAVE to.

 

by the way..what clutch spring did u change? the actual pedal spring or did u do what the vette guys do and add a spring.

 

1. You should stop working on cars.
2. You should stop pulling these guys legs.

 

Pawn shops are great resources for sockets you don't care about. Not that it really matters in this situation . . .

 

And fire arms. You know, incase the frustration escalates.

 

When I changed mine that same bolt was the only a-hole out of all the other bolts. Also the driver side mount was by far the most deteriorated. Grind that little f***** off and call it a day, the passengers side only has three bolts (only kidding of course). That CRC freeze off does work, give it a shot. You have to spray the bolt for a good 30-40 seconds several times. If you could mildly warm the block, then spray just the bolt head it might be enough to free it up.