How to Remove Rounded Nuts and Bolts

[Xist]

GO2 SOCKET | OFFICIAL WEB SITE

It is $14.99 with free shipping to the United States and $10 to ship anywhere else the U.S. Postal service delivers. The full list is here: Index of Countries and Localities
This is the one 20mm socket depicted. I thought that it was a set, eleven sockets from 10- to 20mm, but it simply adjusts down to 10mm.

I thought you would often not be able to get a 10mm Go2Socket where you need it, but a 20mm G2S for a 10mm nut or bolt? Not likely!
This is where I learned about them:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWM3Ue1ojdE

I ordered one.

[Daox]

This is what I use:

Craftsman 6PC Damaged Bolt/Nut Remover Set - Tools - Tool Sets - Specialty Tool Sets

It has a reverse thread on the inside of the extractor bits, so it bites into the metal to grab it. If all else fails, grab a hammer and pound one on. That makes it grab.

[Fat Charlie]

I've got what Doax has, but I got it free through work for having taken my required online classes. Large corporation incentive programs are strange.

[dirtydave]

I use vice grips and take a few hours. swearing and bloody knuckles for sure.

[jamesqf]

If a nut's stuck so badly that a regular socket rounds it off, wouldn't the GO2 just keep rounding it more?

My own solution for badly stuck nuts is a Dremel tool with a carbide blade. Make a cut down the side, use a chisel to pop the thread bits, and it just falls off.

[Xist]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9gXxtvm8lo

He puts rebar into a vice, puts a Go 2 Socket on one end, and with a breaker bar, twists the rebar. It rotates somewhat in the vice, but he definitely deforms it.

Seriously, I was just about to order it when the friend whose oil pan I replaced asked me to help her with her car again. The car was not starting. She thought that a partially-flattened lock washer between the starter and the cable was a contributor and maybe it was. I watched a video where a mechanic said that many Hondas do not start because the battery terminals get so corroded or oxidized that not enough current can get through. He showed us bulging cables and how to cut off a section and redo them. I did not see any bulges in her cables, but they were a mess, the ends were all frayed. When we removed the battery to replace the lock washer, we saw that the bottom was even worse, and when we removed the terminal, we found oxidation inside. I sawed off half an inch, put the terminal back on, and her car started.

When I was at O'Reilly picking up lock washers, I looked at what they had for stripped nuts and bolts and I found something like what Doax linked, but it was twice the price. I can see times when the Go 2 Socket would be too big to fit, but I am still ordering a set. $14.99 for eleven sockets sounds great.

It really sounded too good to be true. Fifteen dollars for one socket seems too high.

[user removed]

How a pro did it.

1- If you get a tough nut or bolt use a 6 point socket first. 12 points strip them easily 6 point and the right socket and it seldom happens. Usually you just snap the head off, either nut or bolt.

2- If it starts to strip (the head), STOP, see if you have a crap socket that you candrive on the nut-bolt and get it loose. Me personally, I'd heat it up then squirt some oil areound the mating surface. Sometimes it helps to actually tighten it dow, just afewdegrees to break the rust bond with dissimilar metals.

3-This tool will simply NOT work or a significant number of nuts-bolts. It's too big to fit in many places. No way in heaven I would have been able to get it on the t-stat bolts on the Sentra and I can think of numerous other places.

4-Take and angle grinder and cut the nut, preferrable lengthwise, stick a chisel in the cut and rap it with a hammer, but not enough to damage the threads.


5-Phillips head countersunk, it won't touch. Most important is have a bit that fits BEFORE you ever try to break it loose, like engine cases and side covers on 40 year old motorcycle engines. If you can not break it loose add some leverage. If it slips then more penetrating oil, and rap it with a hammer and a flat faced punch. You may have to drive the bit in after peening with hammer and punch. After that you"re in trouble or need an impact driver (always a great tool seldom used- not that bad rust here)

Thats thousands of fastener removal procedures condensed into a fairly simple post.
Didn't cost you squat and my success record was close to perfect. But it never hurts to sit there and think over your options. Exhaust bolts that are frozen piles of rust, cut them off with an angle grinder and get new hardware.


I'm looking for Frank Lee, frankly.
regards
mech

[Xist]

As I have complained before, non-computer people see me using Opera and ask "What is that?" and before I can say anything, they say "You should use Firefox! It is better!"

I do not have any idea why, but Firefox will not load any web pages for me. While I use Opera 12, Firefox is on version 32, which is absolutely legitimate, since Opera came out before MSIE! Some sites refuse to work with it, though, and tell me to "upgrade" to Explorer.

The one problem is with Facebook or Huffington Post, because both load hundreds of elements, whether you want them to or not. I just want to skim an article! Why do I need dozens of links and multiple videos that start playing on their own?!

I could not find this picture, so I uploaded it to Facebook again, and then my browser crashed, taking out this post with it:


In order to remove a nut between the exhaust manifold and the front exhaust pipe, I:
1. Soaked it with PB Blaster repeatedly and waited a very boring time.
2. Heat it with my heat ray gun.
3. Blasted it with my propane torch.
4. Bought a chisel, but while it was under my car I could only tap it ineffectively before the chisel ineffectively flew at my face.
5. Cut myself badly.
6. "Ruined" Easter dinner.
7. Bought a nut buster, but it did not fit.
8. Removed the exhaust manifold and attempted to chisel the nut, but hammered a smaller socket onto it, which worked.

I do not know that a Go 2 Socket would have fit inside of the exhaust shielding, while Daox's kit certainly would have. Is there a larger version of the Craftsman set? If so, it would cost more than the Go 2 Socket.

[2000mc]

Originally Posted by Xist

Is there a larger version of the Craftsman set? If so, it would cost more than the Go 2 Socket.

13 PIECE 3/8" BOLT EXTRACTOR SET MBX13 | Matco Tools

...yea, um wait for it to be on promo. I don't know if I've ever used one on a bolt head, see step one of old mechs post, I just beat them on the left over chunk of bolt / stud after the head is gone

[Cobb]

+1 to what the old mechanic said. I use nothing but 6 point sockets. I use the one with the tightest fit and many times using a metric on a standard bolt or a standard on a metric bolt. A little squirt of pen oil and some cases I find it works if you go to tighten it an 1.8 of a turn, then go to loosen it if not rock it several times.

Plan B is a small cut off wheel in a dremel.