wheel damper bolt broken

[Shydog]

Hello all,    I decided to tear into the fat lady, '00 interstate, and removed the rear wheel, final drive, and driveshaft. 30k on the ole girl. All the splines were in great shape and well lubed. I did change the dampers and after replacing those, I twisted off one of the damper plate bolts. My darn torque wrench was cold after bringing it in from an outside shed, and I didn't wait for it to warm up. Anyway the other 4 bolts were installed ok. Question is will the plate be ok with just the 4 bolts, or should I remove the plate and try to extract the bolt, twisted off just below the surface of the wheel, with an easy out kit? Any other suggestions?

Shydog
E. central Ohio

[Daniel Meyer]

Yes and no.

I think the plate will stay in place...

...but I'd replace the bolt.

Sorry, not much help I know LOL!

[Red Diamond]

Try a left handed drill bit, if it hasn't bottomed it may just back out.

[Patrick]

I too would replace it, even though it probably won't bother leaving it alone. However you decide to remove the old stub, make sure you start the drill in the exact center. That way if the left twist drill or easy-out doesn't work [ hopefully it should though] then you drill enough to re-tap/chase the original size.

[vanagon40]

I would make an effort at removing it and replacing it, just because I wouldn't like having a wheel with a defect.  That said, I cannot imagine that anyone would ever notice the missing (broken) bolt.  I'll be more assertive than he previous responses, I don't just think the plate will stay in place, I am certain the plate will stay in place.

Here is my thread on the subject:   Click here.

[indybobm]

There has been some previous discussion about whether or not the damper bolts are torque-to-yield bolts. I did some experimenting and found that when the bolts are torgued to the specs in the manual, they permantly stretched by more than .030 inch. They continued to stretch each time I torqued them. You cannot torque a bolt that is stretching. It will eventually break as you have found.

Two choices after you remove the broken bolt. Get new damper bolts and torque to spec - or re-use the old bolts with blue lock-tite and snug them down good without the torque wrench.

Good luck

[Shydog]

Thanks all for the responses to my problem. I will try to remove the twisted off bolt with an easyout or left handed drill bit. Will stop by the local auto zone and see what they have available. I wonder if they would have bolts that would replace the used ones on the damper plate?

[Ricky-D]

I can't really see the need to torque those bolts anyway!

The plate is held in by the wheel when you clock the plate and all the bolts do is to keep the plate from turning.

A nominal tightening and some thread locker is all I can see being needed.

A torque wrench is probably the biggest contributor to broken bolts and screws.

In the wrong hands it certainly is.

***

[Daniel Meyer]

A torque wrench is probably the biggest contributor to broken bolts and screws.

In the wrong hands it certainly is.

***

Particularly on the small and low torque fasteners. The big wrench won't be accurate at low values, and the inexpensive small wrenches (harbor freight etc) are grossly inaccurate...often off by 2-300%...

[Patrick]

I agree with the torque wrench comments, plus, some folks really don't know how to  handle one. I'm not saying Shydog doesn't know how to use one, I'm just saying that some don't.

[john]

I twisted off one of the damper plate bolts.  " My darn torque wrench was cold "             
                sears craftsman ... left handed drill bit and e-z out all in one ....                                                      
     like a dream come true ....               

[fordmano]

I can't really see the need to torque those bolts anyway!

The plate is held in by the wheel when you clock the plate and all the bolts do is to keep the plate from turning.

A nominal tightening and some thread locker is all I can see being needed.

A torque wrench is probably the biggest contributor to broken bolts and screws.

In the wrong hands it certainly is.

***

Damn, when I changed out my dampeners I managed to over torque one bolt felt the threads starting to pull and stopped before I broke anything. Luckily that was the first bolt it seemed like the torque wrench was set to click at too much torque and I checked the number and it was. I think the book says something like 47INCH pounds and I had the torque wrench set to 47 FOOT lbs,,, no clue what made my head read the number wrong but I did...

A torque wrench is not a toy its a tool and in the wrong hands can be VERY dangerous...