holy crap, what do I do?
 

Tonight I was changing my shock absorbers on the W123. When putting on the inside bolt at the bottom of shock absorber (10mm, 12pt head), I must have over-tightened because the damn head broke right off the bolt! A brand new bolt! I was torquing it by hand with a 10mm wrench, not even a rachet. I swear I didn't give any more torque than it took to get the old one off. But water under the bridge, now here I am....

So the outside bolt is in good, and it seems pretty tight, but how am I going to resolve this? Obviously it can't last very long like this, and I'm almost afraid to lower the car back down off the jacks. How on earth will I get this thing out without ruining the threads on the part it bolts into? I'm so sad, I thought this was going to be an easy job, now I can't even drive my car.....someone give me some good advice, I don't know what to do....... :(:(:(

you need to get a easy out. What this is, is a almost drill bit that has a backwards pattern. First you drill a small hole in the top of the bolt then you start to screw this in the hole and it will grab the bolt and start to back it out. you just might have a problem with clearance because it was in the back and there is little space to work with. Give this a try. if you dont know what it is go to a sears and the assistant should be able to help you out.

Yes! I have heard of an easy out. Do you do it by hand or using a power drill? Do you think it's a bad idea to drive the car like this? It seems like it's not going anywhere right now, and it would be held in by the one bolt, plus the connection up top. I almost have the car back together now. :dizzy2:

If the bolt head sheared off flush with the bolt and there is no protruding threads from the bolt head. By removing your shock from the mount there might be a protruding stub left.
Try to grab it with vice grips and see if it easily turns out. If it does not easily turn out try to thread a nut on it and have someone with a mig centre weld the nut to the bolt is one solution. Just make sure whoever does it has done this a lot of times. Works very well usually and the heat from the nut weld travelling down the actual threaded part seems to help the removal situation as well to some extent.
If the break is too low for this then the easy out is your best bet. What you have going for you is the bolt thread is not rusted in place as you just inserted it.

Sure you can, just undo the other bottom bolt, the top nut and remove the shock - now you're mobile again (and you can drive somewhere to buy a tool/get it sorted??)
What a pita!

Giles

There may not be enough room to use any power tools, barry... has a good idea.

I would not try to use an easy out there, or anywhere for that matter. They always seem to break off then you have this very hard piece of metal stuck where you don't want it.

First try taking out the stub like Barry says. the welding thing is good too but you have to have the equipment and skill to do that.

I would just drill out the offending part, taking care to center punch it carefully, with a drill the size of the metal in the bolt that is uncut by the threads, then take tap and tap out what is left.

And there is no reason you cannot drive it with one shock in the bottom, you just don't want to do that for too long.

I had a benz or bmw that I seem to remember driving like that for a good long while, each day thinking it would break and it never did.

Tom W

Been there, done that. I also freaked.

Remove the shock, and you'll probably find that the broken stub will come out rather easily. Try gripping with a vice grips if any is sticking out. If no-go there are many tricks to try. Heating it up a little with a propane torch will help, but be very conservative as you don't want to heat up the lower ball joint too much. I center-punched the stub, then started to drill out with a reverse-threaded drill bit (which turns in loosening direction) and the stub came right out. If you drill a nice hole but the stub remains, try the easy-out. Another approach: use a dremel tool with cutting disc to cut a grove in top, then impact screwdrive with regular bit to drive it out.

I second this method. I broke a flywheel bolt a couple weeks ago. A mig welder did the trick.

what kind of shocks?

How about a right-angle drill? They'll fit into some pretty tight spots. A lot of plumbers use them.

I've heard very good things about reverse rotation drill bits, opposed to an "easy out", but haven't tried that method.