Well....my EVO from hell continues to earn it's title <shaking head>

A little background....bought the car used with an HKS twinplate in it....less than 500 miles after purchase the clutch was totally toast....and I was putzing most of that time so....don't blame me ;-) After waiting 5 weeks for the clutch I ordered to replace it (ACT 6 puck and RRE flywheel) I continued the install tonight (had removed everything but the tranny itself previously...boy...getting the TC out is a nightmare). Anyway...I took my time and everything went great, the tranny came off no sweat. Pulled the clutch out (totally shot...slick as glass) with no issues....but ran into problems with the flywheel bolts.

Basically it looks like they were put in with uber-torque and possibly loctite... The heads already looked a little misshapen...and after nuking them with a brute impact wrench (and PB Blaster) for a while 3 came out and 4 rounded off the bolt heads <cry> and no...I was not using a 12 point socket ;-) I let up as soon as they slipped...but they are pretty ugly. The entire head of the bolts looks twisted they had so much grunt put on them :-(

Does anyone have any thoughts on resolving this issue now? I have heard of applying heat with a torch working for other stuck bolts but....do not know if that applies here...or if anything nearby (like the main seal for example) would instantly crap out from excessive heat (although I suspect that area gets fairly hot normally)

I am so screwed!

Thanks for any help

 

the heat will break the loctite. i know there are some special sockets out there that can grab rounded off bolts. try sears or snapon. or you can just grind the heads off.

 

Sears has the sockets, I have a set and they have saved my rear more then once. If it comes down to it, bust out the grinder and get to work. Once the heads are gone and flywheel off then you might lightly heat the end of the crank to break the loctite and then use a stout set of vicegrips to see if you can get the bolt out.It should not be too difficult as the pressure that the bolt head had been applying to the flywheel is now gone, so it should just be screwed in with loctite. That red loctite can be a PIA though....

 

i've grinded down bolts to next closest socket size and hammered the socket on. did this when working on my car and stripped a bolt at 1 am. it was either that or wait for sears to open :-P

 

you need to get a set of sockets that are ment to remove rounded off bolts. I have set of em from snap-on and the are the sh*t. I've even removed a snapped off bolt with these things.

FYI Take the end cap off the t-case where the drive shaft plugs into it. It leaves you so much more room to get it back in the car. Just watch out and don't loose the rubber seal when you take it off. The cap is held on with 4 12mm or 14mm bolts, I can't remember off hand.

 

Have you tried a hammer impact 3/8 drive? I have used my Snap-on hammer impact succesfully many times. The tool requires you to hit it with a sledge on top to turn the socket while force is applied onto the bolt head. Be careful if you're going to apply a torch to it since the rear main seal will fail because of high heat.

 

Hmmm...I am willing to try anything at this point so I will look for one of those sockets. I think I will try a good ole breaker bar instead of the impact wrench...since it could not get them out before <sigh>

Thanks a ton on the tip with the TC...I was planning on trying to wedge it up in there before putting the tranny back in...but I bet that would be a pain/near impossible <grin>

Thanks again all....I will keep you updated...

 

Well....I bought a set of the Craftsman bolt-out sockets. They look like they really could work on some applications but did not for me.

Since the original issue was that the bolt heads were deforming before the bolt itself was letting go...the bolt-outs did not help. They did grab and bit into the deformed bolt heads...but then just chewed up what was left...still not breaking free the bolts. So...I went from bolts with messed up corners to bolts that are almost perfectly round <snicker>

The final plan is to grind the bolt heads off....enough messing around. I do not want to try the torch method since (considering my luck) I do not want to risk messing anything else up....

I *hope* to get a chance to tackle that this evening so....film at 11 :-)

Thanks

 

I feel for you, been there done that.... And I agree with Superz, you would have to be reeaaly carefull about applying heat with the crank still in the block, I do not imagine that it would take a whole lot to mess up the rear seal. Good luck!

 

I think you need to heat red loctite to 300degF in order for it to soften so it might not be too bad. Even so, wouldn't you just replace the rear main seal while your in there? It's relatively cheap and easy to do while you're at it.

 

Well...last week I was able to get the flywheel bolts out :-)

I decided against using a torch/heat...considering my luck with this project.

The thing that ended up working like a champ was cutting an X into the heads with a pneumatic cutting wheel, then using a manual impact tool with a big flat head blade to pop a couple quarters of the bolt head off...then they screwed right out <thumbs up>

Pics can be seen here:

http://hardknockracing.com/gallery/?.../clutchinstall

After that I planned to use the entire weekend if necessary to finish the install...so Saturday morning I installed the new flywheel with new bolts, then realized I had no pressure plate bolts since the HKS used a different setup...so the entire weekend was shot since the parts department was closed and I wasn't about to risk using some unknown bolts.

So...this evening I fly home from work with my new bolts and install the pressure plate/clutch, then toil for over 2.5 hours trying to get the tranny on and never even came close <weep> Well...I came close enough for the ring thingy to pop out of the pressure plate, requiring total removal of the transmission from the area to snap that back in....twice :-( Anyhoo...I am going to post about that in another post in hopes of getting some advice on it.

Thanks

 

I just drove around the block with no problems so...I finally got it.

I ended up using my engine hoist and some big straps to suspend it from above and it went right on in less than an hour...no problem.

Thanks all