Need advice: damper bolt hole in crank damaged

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jos51700

jos51700

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Hello all,
on the wife's 2001 neon, I went to pull the damper/pulley to do the timing belt. Push rod on the Chrysler puller wasn't long enough so I cut off a used head bolt and dropped the piece in the hole. Worked great, damper pulled off. I've done this before, never a problem.

Problem: this piece deformed and LOCKED itself in the hole. Tried to drill and tap, and puller bolt wouldn't bring it out.
Drilled oversize (and sadly, off centre) and have likely eaten some crank away. Even tried a ezout, and no luck. There's now a lop sided piece stuck in a half inch diameter, 3.5" deep hole.

Getting the bits out I might be able to do, but what about a thread repair?

Any advice on any of the situation is appreciated. I had my head up my *** further than usual on this one.
 
Depend on how bad and if you can get all the junk out. The pre-drill maybe deeper than the threads and you could tap it deeper and use a longer bolt. Also, loctite makes some repair stuff, you may be able to use that too. I used the 660 to repair a crank key way, worked great.
 
Wow. That's tough. I have no real solution besides replacing the crank or getting it out to be able to properly address the hole. I wish I could be more help.
 
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moper said:
Wow. That's tough. I have no real solution besides replacing the crank or getting it out to be able to properly address the hole. I wish I could be more help.
Click to expand...
jos51700 said:
Hello all,
on the wife's 2001 neon, I went to pull the damper/pulley to do the timing belt. Push rod on the Chrysler puller wasn't long enough so I cut off a used head bolt and dropped the piece in the hole. Worked great, damper pulled off. I've done this before, never a problem.

Problem: this piece deformed and LOCKED itself in the hole. Tried to drill and tap, and puller bolt wouldn't bring it out.
Drilled oversize (and sadly, off centre) and have likely eaten some crank away. Even tried a ezout, and no luck. There's now a lop sided piece stuck in a half inch diameter, 3.5" deep hole.

Getting the bits out I might be able to do, but what about a thread repair?

Any advice on any of the situation is appreciated. I had my head up my *** further than usual on this one.
Click to expand...

Use a small air saw, put the blade in the hole and cut the piece your trying to get out in two or three pieces. Pie cut it front the inside out. Cut until you just start hitting the threads. You should be able to work the pieces out with small chissels, picks. After it’s out, clean up threads, and use red loctite on the bolt when you reassemble
 
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Torch it!
I watched a guy do that once, not on a crank mind you. But same result. That guy knew a thing or two about cutting chit!
Or leave it in there, drive it down to the bottom, and stud it.
 
Coat crank snout and balancer with high quality sleeve retainer, beat it on, and keep your eye on it for awhile. Might not be a problem.
 
Carbide burr and grind away the offending material?it will be time consuming.
 
If you have some thread engagement, you could shorten the crank bolt, leave the **** in the hole and just tighten the bolt.

It cupped, it's like yankin on a fish hook.
 
MOPAROFFICIAL said:
If you have some thread engagement, you could shorten the crank bolt, leave the **** in the hole and just tighten the bolt.

It cupped, it's like yankin on a fish hook.
Click to expand...
That was my thought also. If you have a 1/2 or so of good threads at the front of the hole...
Lots of different engines didn't have a bolt there. Not say yours is not needed but it certainly doesn't need to be so deep.
 
Sadly BTDT. Luckily I was able to get my recycled head bolt out out as I think it was just wedged at the very bottom of the hole.
At least with the damper off, you have a little room to work. If you can get enough of the shank out you may be able to use a thread insert. Problem is it'll be somewhat large and using a hand-held drill trying to make a concentric hole won't be easy. Instead of shortening the crank bolt you could space it out with washers.
I work for a NASA contractor and almost all of the threaded holes that fly have inserts. The Keen-sert style only.
 
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