Morris Commercial Head Stud Removal.

[Phil Waterman]

Hi Petr

To add to welding on a nut to turn out a broken stud or bolt. I've had good success with this method as well. Couple added steps, once the nut is weld on I like to use an impact wrench with torque turned down to vibrate the bolt. Also I've had much better results with impact over long breaker bars. Vibrate then soak let stand over night and try again. Also had this trick taking several tries when the nut breaks off, amazing how far below the surface of the block you can successfully weld a nut on and remove.

There have been several good past threads on this topic.

Cheers Phil

[Bob Carriere]

some of those engine studs may actually enter into the water jacket and the end of the stud blooms with rust.

...on particularly tough broken studs I have found that in addition to welding a nut with the Mig..... I let it get cold....... then heat up the cast iron mass with the Oxy -Acet. torches..... removing a broken spring bolt stud from a HUP cast axle takes a lot of external heat.... maybe 5 or 10 minutes of heating with the torches due to the massive heat sink.

I prefer to use a box wrench and vibrate by hand back and forth. If it moves 1/16 either way you have it made. In some odd situation I welded a handle on to the nut before welding the nut on the stud..... makes it easier when doing a tractor engine in situ and the stud is in vertical position.

I have done the same thing on exhaust stud in tractor engines...uses a lot of gas but it works.

Cheers

PS..... not sure how you are making out Phil with the Polar Vortex but we now have 3 to 4 inches of fresh snow on the ground in Ottawa....... I may turn on the house Xmas lights to piss off the neighbours.

[T Creighton]

Hi Mike, Phil, Petr, Lynn and Bob.
Thanks for the ideas. The consensus seems to be to weld a nut on the stud so I shall try that. If it works well on one stud I will need quite a few nuts although it may be possible to re use some.
Where should the nut be? Near the block surface or further up the stud so as to allow for penetrating fluid around the thread.
I don't want to run out of practice studs before I get the process sorted.
The block in the centre of the pic is probably the one I will get rebuilt.
I could be still doing this when our snow starts falling and as Lynn will know that will be a very long time.
Cheers, Terry

[Lynn Eades]

Terry, weld the nut down close to the block, so that you get the most heat, relative expansion, etc. after the weld has cooled a bit and while there is still some heat in it. that is a good time to put in some more penetrating oil.
(all said with not much specific experience!)
You will have more patience than me, but don't wait until it snows.

[Jacques Reed]

From what I have read and heard The welded nut method is by far the best way to remove broken studs from a block but just thought I would add this method to the box of tricks and for general interest.

I will be the first to admit this method is labour intensive but it did get two broken studs out of my Flathead Ford block in 2002 BDP (Before Digital Photography) without the use of oxy-acetylene or MIG.

I read about this technique in "Restored Cars Magazine" in the late nineties.
The article said to drill a hole in the stud and then using a junior hacksaw blade in a holder carefully cut two notches on either side inside the hole in the broken stub being careful not to go too deep to the internal threads. The stud can then usually be screwed out with an easy out or in my case they screwed out with a screwdriver after I tapped the sides of the stud with a pin punch.

My concern was how to drill a hole down a stud without wandering off center or drilling it at an angle and thereby damaging the threads in the block.
The solution was a $40 small drill press I picked up at a garage sale. I then cut down the post and reversed the drill head on it to get the chuck close to the block. I used studs to bolt the drill press base to the block then a careful centre punch followed by a centering bit before drillling got me straight down the centre of the stud.

I think I used a 3/16" diameter drill down the stud. I made a blade holder and ground a bit of the hacksaw blade away to fit the 3/16" diameter hole.

Long time ago but probably took just over half an hour to get the first one out. Second one went a bit faster.

Don't profess this to be a great method but it did work and unlike some bad tips in books about using easy outs to remove broken studs you won't wind up with a broken easy out stuck in the block!

Cheers,

[Phil Waterman]

Hi Jacques

Good little trick with the bench top drill press. These little drill presses are amazinglying easy to bolt down for tough drilling problems, giving much better results than hand drills. I've never successfully center drilled a broken off studs or bolt with hand driĺl. Will have too try your ground down saw blade trick.

When I was restoring my Pat 12 needed line drill a most of rivits, looked at buying a magnet based drill several hundred dollars instead went with one of these little drill presses under $40. Did some simple modification to make it even more versatile. Will dig out some photos and share them.

Cheers Phil

[Jacques Reed]

Hi Phil,

Look forward to seeing your setup too.

Slight correction to my previous post:
I think I probably drilled the broken stud with a 5/16" drill not a 3/16" drill as the Ford blocks are tapped 7/16-14 UNC. that would allow enough "meat" to prevent hitting the crest of the internal threads during drilling even if slightly off centre. It also kept the junior hacksaw blade more rigid from having to be ground too narrow for the hole.
Probably best to start with a smaller drill and see how it is positioned before going to either a 1/4" or 5/16" drill. Main thing is not to drill so much that there is only the remains of the stud left it the internal threads. Then you will have problems cleaning them out.
I did that once on another part with a broken stud and it was a disaster.

Cheers,