So I was reinstalling my ATI Super Damper. Used the long crank bolt to get the hub on. Then used the old stock bolt to tighten it down to like ~180 ft lbs. When I was backing the old stock bolt out I felt it starting to get tighter, almost as if I were tighening it up. It gets to the point where I just can't move it. If I try going the other direction and tighten it I get about 180 degrees before gets really tight again.

What the heck is going on in there? Anyone experienced this before? How did you get the bolt out? Really frustrated right. Looking for any helpful advice I can get.

Mike

 

Sounds like the threads on the bolt and/or crank are gummed up

 

Be carefull mike u might strip out the threads.........
Kyle

 

Be careful removing it as you may snap the bolt in half.

 

I would agree with the above guys but if I was going to take a chance to get it out I would go with and impact and not slow hand turning to try to get it out just from experience on other stuff not a crank bolt though. You can usually get the momentum to keep the bolt turning and back out.

 

I'll give the impact wrench a try. This is very frustrating. I might give ATI a call as they are based out of Baltimore, only like 45 minutes away from me. Maybe they have an idea as well.

Hopefully someone else has seen this. There's no way I broke 200 ft/lbs. So I don't know how I got the bolt and or crank threads messed up... Big installs can really suck the life out of you at times.

Thanks for the ideas so far guys,
Mike

 

Things like this can still happen even if you do it right. Just a part of life

 

And when I say don't use a bolt to press a pulley on, I'm usually told I'm full of ****.

 

A friend of mine had that happen....had to get it professionally removed & re-tapped. So it does rarely happen....

 

I tried the impact wrench, no luck. I tried just muscling through, but that **** is well over 220 ft./lbs. and won't break free. So what are my options at this point?

I can use a torch to either heat up the hub or the bolt. I would think heating up the bolt won't help as that will make it expand. Making it even tougher to get off. But it's not threaded in the hub anyways, so what good would heating that up do?

My least favorite, yet only real possible solution, is to pull the front bumper and drill the bolt out. I'm really worried about doing this on such a pivital bolt. Plus if I'm not dead on I could skew off into the crank. Assuming I could figure out how to get the angle dead on. I'd have to be pretty precise about the depth as well. Drill too much and I'm into the crank. Drill too little and I leave bits of the old bolt inside.

If I try and drill, do I just want to hollow out the bolt a little bit so that maybe the threads can collapse a bit and allow me to get it out? Or will the just weaken it making it more likely to snap? Is it better to drill it out to where I'm almost toughins the crank threads. The bolt will be brittle, but I can thread a new flatened bolt and get the remnants out. Then put in the real bolt. Or is it best to start small and work my way up?

If I hit the crank,. I'll have to retap it for sure. I might wait until Tuesday and give ATI a call. I'm sure they've seen something like this before.

Any advice or suggestion would be welcome guys,
Mike

 

I would try heating the hub with a torch first and have a buddy try to wrench out the bolt while you're doing that.

I would avoid drilling the bolt at this stage. I'd use that as a last resort, it at all.

I don't think that drilling it will help based on your description of how the bolt is acting when you try to rotate it in either direction. It will only turn about 180* clockwise before it tightens up and then if you turn it counter clockwise it'll bind. That gives me the impression that a specific region of the bolt is now malformed so unless you could drill right through to that point I don't see it coming free

 

I just did this Yaesterday.Take a plasma cutter and cut the outer 1/8-1/4" off the outside if the bolt flange,then you can use your puller and get the dampener off.It's a lot easier to work w/the pulley out of the way.I had the same problem as you in doing the install Correctly and the threads are still gone.GM has to fix this BS.I ordered a Heli Coil kit and I'm going to fix it so the threads no longer gall.I believe they gall the threads b/c of the shitty gm bolt.I ordered the arp bolt,the heli-coil kit and now It's just time to be patient.Lucky for me these GTOs are easy to work on.If it wasn't for the balancer bolt,Cam-springs-retainers could have been done in about 3hrs.

 

I would try rapping on the bolt as you work it in a little, then rap outward as you work it out. You have metal filings jamming the threads and rapping it might be enough to let you work it out slowly. Use plenty of wd40 also in the hope that some will penetrate.

 

Well,I fixed my crank in the car today.It wasn't too bad,just very stressfull and kind of expensive.16 mm*2 heli coil kit=105,drill bit =30,ARP bolt =25,overnight of all parts =75.Total 235 parts and delivery,50 beer,100 counseling.I'm just glad Heli Coiling a crankshaft can be done for all the nay sayers.I have a ton of extra heli coils for the next guy.
Anthony

 

Tony, where did you get the helicoil kit for the crank? A buddy of mine needs to do this to his.

 

This definetly sucks,it happend to a buddy of mine when he was putting his back together...If you cant budge it or take it out with a 1/2" impact your fucked...Your gunna have to drill it out,if a half inch impact wont help theres nothing that will... sorry man

 

www.metricsunlimited.com, They also have high strength 16*2 threaded rod,drill bits,etc. If he can wait til next week He can buy all my supplies.I have the silver and demming 21/32 bit,16 and 24mm heli coils,insert tool,helicoil sti tap.

 

Tony, PM me a price on your parts.

How did you verify that when you drilled the old bolt out, you were dead centered? I'm thinking if you're even slightly off you could really mess up the crank.

I don't have a plasma cutter, so I'll probably have to go through the head of the bolt.

What size to you tap your crank to?

Mike

 

a buddy of mine had his bolt break off in the crank of his 99 gt mustang. one guy got in to drill it for an ease-out and ended up drilling sideways and hitting the crank. we broke about 20 bits and 10 ease-outs. they ended up getting a big drill bit and drilling it untill the threads began to crumble and they got all the remnants out. go buy you a 3/4" drive impact w/ about 1200ft/lbs of POWA and use it to take it out (or break it off ) . then take the impact back .

you will get it, it just may take time. just keep thinking about all the you will be doing when its fixed and stay motivated!!

 

This same thing happened to me in my cam install... I ended up finally breaking the old bolt free. It took about 5 good friends and one hell of an impact. So after we got it free, we saw it only galled the last 1/4" of threads on the long ARP bolt, so I took a stock bolt and installed it with the ARP washer and painted a stripe to make sure it doesn't back out. It hasn't budged yet, but I'd really, really love to find the time to make a better, more permanent fix. It pissed me off to no end, it's kinda comforting to hear I'm not the only one, but I'm definately sorry for all those it happens to, I know how much of a PITA it is. What worked for me was just keeping on hitting the bolt against the gall... I mean popping it against where it stuck, both with the impact and with a 24" breaker bar and lots of friends. Good luck, man.

As soon as I have the time, my buddy has a 2.0 pitch, 18mm (I think that's the right one. He's got the right size, whatever it is) tap that I'm gonna run through there with a bit of grease to pick up the shavings, then it'll be in with another ARP bolt.