How to Remove a Broken Bolt or Tap

A broken or damaged bolt can be hard to remove.

When you are working on a car or a piece of equipment in your home and the top breaks off the bolt or tap, it can sometimes be a challenge to remove the part. It can be done and sometimes much more easily than you might expect, however. Always try the easiest solutions first before moving on to the more complicated ways to extract it.

Things You'll Need

• Eye protection
• Vise grips
• Small propane torch
• Hammer
• Center punch
• Metal file
• Power drill with left-hand bit set
• Dental pick

Instructions

Hand Extraction

1. Grip the protruding top of the bolt with a pair of vise grips. The grip must be very tight in order to turn a difficult bolt. Turn in a counter-clockwise direction. In many cases, the bolt will unscrew and you can remove it.

2. Heat the area surrounding the bolt in cases where it cannot be turned with the vise grips. Don't heat anything where the heat might harm the finish or the metal that is holding the bolt or tap, but much of the time this changes the composition of the metal and will allow you to grip the bolt with the vise grips and turn it while the surrounding metal is hot.

3. Hit a broken tap that can't be unscrewed by holding a punch against it and tapping it with a hammer. You may be able to knock the tap out of the hole or break it into pieces, but this action requires extreme care because you may also damage your project if you are too rough.

Drilling

1. File off the top of the bolt or tap until it is completely level. You need to do this in order to prevent your drill bit from going off course as you drill into the stuck part.

2. Drill into the middle of the bolt or tap, making sure you only drill the part and not the surrounding area. If you drill into the threads holding the bolt or tap you will damage the bolt hole. A left-hand drill bit set is best for this, to avoid having your drill bind up as you work. Drill until you have gone completely through the bolt or tap.

3. Make a second hole down through the one you just drilled. Use a larger bit for the second hole, so that most of the original bolt or tap is drilled away.

4. Pick out the remaining pieces of the bolt using a dental pick. This removes the old bolt while leaving the threads it was screwed into intact.

Tips & Warnings

• If the threads are rusted or frozen in place, try some penetrating oil and let it soak in around the bolt or tap. This is not a quick answer to your problem and it may take several applications and a couple of weeks of waiting, so use this as a last resort.

• Use care to avoid getting cut or scraped when working in and around machinery. Never work on equipment while it is running because you could be seriously injured. Always wear eye protection when using power tools or heat.

References

• Second Chance Garage: Getting Broken Bolts Out