Broke my water pump bolt. Now what? (Update - broken bolt is out)

RustyRatRod said

I didn't give him crap. But ok, my mistake. It's a water pump bolt. I saw the timing cover in the photo and kinda zoomed in on that. My bad. No need to beat the guy up though. He evidently has limited resources and doesn't have the mechanical skill of some, which is why he's coming here in the first place. He's a good member. No need to try to run him off beating him over the head with what he cannot do. He's doing the best he knows how.

Click to expand...

While I agree to some extent I find it hard to believe no one in his world owns a truck or a welder... If I were closer I'd throw my little 110V Hobart in my truck & hook him up... There's gotta be someone in his group of acquaintances that can do this...

And after going back and seeing his location (Bloomington Mn) that's blue collar central... I was expecting some place more white collar...

Drilling a rusty bolt is only going to weaken it further... If your gonna drill, drill with the intent of collapsing the thread, that means drilling a perfectly centered hole, if it's off by .050 you've caused more harm than good...

The loctite plan is a joke, zero chance.... I've fixed a lot of broken bolts, free hand drilling is begging for trouble, If you are gonna try something like that bolt the water pump housing back on & use it as a guide.. Probably still gonna be a mess but he'll have a chance..

Welding a nut on wouldn't take five minutes & at the very least I've never had it make the situation worse... Sure can't say that about a man with a drill...