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For those who saw my posting a month or so ago about breaking off the vent tube bolt on my 1967 327/300HP, I just want to say - it's fixed and I did it! Here's what I learned.
1. Patience, patience, patience and patience. For me, frustration is an issue and I needed to walk away inumerable times during the removal and just take some deep breaths (ok curse a bit too!).
2. Planning - I thought about what I was going to do for over a month. Of course everything I planned went wrong once I started, but at least I had a plan.
3. First, I put a piece of duct tape over the hole in the breather tube to keep drill pieces from getting into the engine.
4. Next, I purchased an 18 inch solid extension for my drill (Sears). The type that has the hexagonal bits that fit into the end. This limited my ability to use reverse drill bits (which I purchased in the planning phase), but allowed me to drill holes in the broken screw without removing the distributor.
5. I place a triple-folded towel over the hood frame and clamped it into place with two plastic clamps. Since I used the 18" extender bit, my drill was right at about hood frame level and I have visions of the spinning chuck digging into the fiberglass.
6. Used a spring-loaded center punch (Sears). Punched a started hole in the broken screw end. Starting with a very small bit, I drilled a center hole in the screw making sure to use my free hand to stabilize the extender and keep it from rubbing against the distrubtor.
7. Once I had established the center hole, I sequentially moved up to two bit sizes to enlarge the hole going down about 1/4". At this point I could insert the screw extractor I had bought (Sears).
8. Inserted the extractor and began carefully trying to back out the screw. It move in increments and just when I thought maybe I was going to get lucky - the tip of the extractor broke off in my center hole.
9. Back to #1 - patience, breath, swear, breath, swear, patience.
10. Decided the only thing left to do was drill a series of small holes around the broken extractor tip in hopes of freeing it up, getting it out, and continuing to drill down the center of the broken bolt.
11. Drilled 6-8 small holes around the broken extractor tip. Whenever the small bits caught the extractor bit they would spark and break. I broke all five of the small bits in my set. Trying to drill down on the extractor bit with a larger bit only resulted in the larger bit chipping or breaking off their ends.
12. Moved on to a center punch and small screw driver to knock down the ridges between the drilled holes in an effort to free up the broken extractor tip.
13. I forgot to mention that after each drilling session, I used a vacuum cleaner with a cardboard tube rolled into a cone on the end to vacuum out the debris. This worked really well and the cardboard tube kept me from chipping paint on the engine.
14. At this point after the last vacuuming, I checked and the broken extractor tip was now gone. I worked with some small picks to try and chip out pieces of the screw and this worked to some degree. Then vacuum again and check progress.
15. Finally, using the original screw as a guide, I choose a drill bit 1-2 sizes smaller, took a deep breath and went right down the center. That definitely removed a lot of the screw, but it was still there.
16. Moved up 1 bit size, repeat, vacuum, and check.
17. Moved up 1 size again, and bing the bit gave way into the hole and jammed. Reversed it out, and I must admit panicked thinking I had drilled all the way through the engine block because a black oily substance was on the drill bit. Carefully checked the breath screw hole and it still had a bottom so the engine was ok (dumb thought I know, but still). Realized at this point that what I was seeing was the easy out stuff I had placed on the screw for the past month in hopes of lossening it up for removal. Clearly, some of it had seaped past the screw threads into the hole.
18. I got one of my small picks out (Sears by the way - set of four) and started digging around the hole because it really was starting to look like most of the screw was gone. As I picked around the outer edge of the hole a perfect thin-walled cylinder with threads broke away from the sides of the wall and crumpled into the bottom of the screw hole. A few jabs to bust it up, vacuum and voila, it was gone.
19. THIS IS WHEN THE MIRACLE HAPPENED, THE SKIES OPENED, AND I HEARD A CHORUS OF ANGELS SAY - YOU SHALL HAVE YOUR BREATHER TUBE SCREW HOLE BACK, BUT NEVER BE SO DUMB AGAIN!
20. I took the breather tube screw, placed it in the hole, it caught and screwed in. Needed to clean a bit of additional debris as the threads knocked out some stuff - but the screw held. I had clearly buggered the very top of the hole a bit, but the threads further down the were just fine.
21. On this forum, I will admit for all to read, I stepped back from the car, sat down on the 10° freezing cold garage floor, and cried - tears of joy, but tears none the less. 3 1/2 hours of careful drilling and patience had payed off. Mounted the breather tube, screwed it in place and walked away. Thought about going back for one more twist on that screw at one point, but then I remembered the ANGELS - NEVER BE SO DUMB AGAIN! I put the wrench down went in the house, got the keys and fired her up for the first time in 5-6 weeks. Let her warm up for 30 minutes, went in the house, and thanked my lucky stars.
22. Sometimes, even newbies get lucky!
1. Patience, patience, patience and patience. For me, frustration is an issue and I needed to walk away inumerable times during the removal and just take some deep breaths (ok curse a bit too!).
2. Planning - I thought about what I was going to do for over a month. Of course everything I planned went wrong once I started, but at least I had a plan.
3. First, I put a piece of duct tape over the hole in the breather tube to keep drill pieces from getting into the engine.
4. Next, I purchased an 18 inch solid extension for my drill (Sears). The type that has the hexagonal bits that fit into the end. This limited my ability to use reverse drill bits (which I purchased in the planning phase), but allowed me to drill holes in the broken screw without removing the distributor.
5. I place a triple-folded towel over the hood frame and clamped it into place with two plastic clamps. Since I used the 18" extender bit, my drill was right at about hood frame level and I have visions of the spinning chuck digging into the fiberglass.
6. Used a spring-loaded center punch (Sears). Punched a started hole in the broken screw end. Starting with a very small bit, I drilled a center hole in the screw making sure to use my free hand to stabilize the extender and keep it from rubbing against the distrubtor.
7. Once I had established the center hole, I sequentially moved up to two bit sizes to enlarge the hole going down about 1/4". At this point I could insert the screw extractor I had bought (Sears).
8. Inserted the extractor and began carefully trying to back out the screw. It move in increments and just when I thought maybe I was going to get lucky - the tip of the extractor broke off in my center hole.
9. Back to #1 - patience, breath, swear, breath, swear, patience.
10. Decided the only thing left to do was drill a series of small holes around the broken extractor tip in hopes of freeing it up, getting it out, and continuing to drill down the center of the broken bolt.
11. Drilled 6-8 small holes around the broken extractor tip. Whenever the small bits caught the extractor bit they would spark and break. I broke all five of the small bits in my set. Trying to drill down on the extractor bit with a larger bit only resulted in the larger bit chipping or breaking off their ends.
12. Moved on to a center punch and small screw driver to knock down the ridges between the drilled holes in an effort to free up the broken extractor tip.
13. I forgot to mention that after each drilling session, I used a vacuum cleaner with a cardboard tube rolled into a cone on the end to vacuum out the debris. This worked really well and the cardboard tube kept me from chipping paint on the engine.
14. At this point after the last vacuuming, I checked and the broken extractor tip was now gone. I worked with some small picks to try and chip out pieces of the screw and this worked to some degree. Then vacuum again and check progress.
15. Finally, using the original screw as a guide, I choose a drill bit 1-2 sizes smaller, took a deep breath and went right down the center. That definitely removed a lot of the screw, but it was still there.
16. Moved up 1 bit size, repeat, vacuum, and check.
17. Moved up 1 size again, and bing the bit gave way into the hole and jammed. Reversed it out, and I must admit panicked thinking I had drilled all the way through the engine block because a black oily substance was on the drill bit. Carefully checked the breath screw hole and it still had a bottom so the engine was ok (dumb thought I know, but still). Realized at this point that what I was seeing was the easy out stuff I had placed on the screw for the past month in hopes of lossening it up for removal. Clearly, some of it had seaped past the screw threads into the hole.
18. I got one of my small picks out (Sears by the way - set of four) and started digging around the hole because it really was starting to look like most of the screw was gone. As I picked around the outer edge of the hole a perfect thin-walled cylinder with threads broke away from the sides of the wall and crumpled into the bottom of the screw hole. A few jabs to bust it up, vacuum and voila, it was gone.
19. THIS IS WHEN THE MIRACLE HAPPENED, THE SKIES OPENED, AND I HEARD A CHORUS OF ANGELS SAY - YOU SHALL HAVE YOUR BREATHER TUBE SCREW HOLE BACK, BUT NEVER BE SO DUMB AGAIN!
20. I took the breather tube screw, placed it in the hole, it caught and screwed in. Needed to clean a bit of additional debris as the threads knocked out some stuff - but the screw held. I had clearly buggered the very top of the hole a bit, but the threads further down the were just fine.
21. On this forum, I will admit for all to read, I stepped back from the car, sat down on the 10° freezing cold garage floor, and cried - tears of joy, but tears none the less. 3 1/2 hours of careful drilling and patience had payed off. Mounted the breather tube, screwed it in place and walked away. Thought about going back for one more twist on that screw at one point, but then I remembered the ANGELS - NEVER BE SO DUMB AGAIN! I put the wrench down went in the house, got the keys and fired her up for the first time in 5-6 weeks. Let her warm up for 30 minutes, went in the house, and thanked my lucky stars.
22. Sometimes, even newbies get lucky!
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