How To Use Broken Fastener Extractors

Oh… now you messed up. You went too hard on the righty tighty, and now you have a righty loosey on your hands. You just sheared off the head of the bolt that you’re trying to tighten. Or even worse, the head of a rusty fastener that you were trying to loosen. Yikes. Your ‘30-minute job’ just got a hell of a lot longer.

 

At least use some penetrating fluid – Let’s talk avoidance, first. What should you have done? Well, at the very least, some penetrating fluid couldn’t have hurt. Penetrating fluids use an oily solvent that slowly works its way into the threads. It leaves an oily coating that, in theory, lubricates the threads. Pretty simple. Using penetrating fluid is easy – allow to soak; tap or vibrate parts to help loosen; reapply and repeat process until parts come free. It’s worth a shot… next time.

Inject some heat – If one thing works better than penetrating fluids, it’s heat. You can use plenty of things to pump some heat into the stuck area. A torch is going to be the most common, but what I really like to use is the Induction Innovations Mini-Ductor Venom. This has saved me from so many Toyota Tacomas that it’s hard to count and it has never failed me, in part because it really focuses the heat where it’s needed.

 

With a torch, you have to be really careful around rubber boots, wires, ball joints, and other sensitive components. With the Mini-Ductor, you’re focusing the heat only on what’s inside the coil. And since it only works on ferrous metal, your fingers are totally safe around this tool. (Side note – it will cook a hot dog if you put the weenie on a metal skewer, but I’m warning you it tastes pretty gross.)

 

Hot dogs aside, this works because heat causes metal to expand. The fact that different metals expand at different rates means that you’re creating a tiny gap between the threads. Bob’s your uncle, and you get a nut that falls right off. In the absence of a Mini-Ductor, give the torch a try anyway. It also cooks hot dogs.

Break out the tools – Now, this is going to depend on whether you’re dealing with a screw or a nut. We’ll start with a nut since that’s a little simpler. We offer a 9-piece bolt extractor set, which you’ll sometimes see referred to as ‘turbo sockets.’ These sockets have a reverse-threaded rifling inside to bite into a rounded nut/bolt head. The more torque applied, the harder they bite. The beauty is that these will work on a variety of shapes. These will absolutely chowder your hardware, but since you’re probably already dealing with rounded fasteners, you should replace it anyways.

 

Sizes for this kit range from ¼-inch to ¾-inch (6 mm to 19 mm). The kit also contains a steel punch that you can slide through the socket to tap out the fastener. The nine included sockets use a ⅜” drive and also include a hex shape around their base so you can slip a wrench around them in a tight spot. Great thinking. And last, but not least, it’s packed in a blow-molded case,  and features a 1-year warranty.

 

Worse-case scenario – Alright, so let’s say you tried the turbo socket and sheared the head off your screw. You’re in big trouble with this one, pal. You have something that’s really stuck. You’re going to need to step up the 6-piece screw extractor set. First, you’ll need to level the broken head with something like a die grinder. Then center-punch exactly in the middle of the screw and drill it out (some left-hand threaded drill bits are perfect for this and you might just get lucky and back the screw out this way). Use a T-handle to slowly and evenly rotate your extractor into the hole you’ve just drilled. With any luck the extractor will catch, allowing you to remove the fastener.

Broken extractors Look, to be honest with you, there are going to be certain situations when the above techniques won’t always work. That’s not to say that these extractor tools aren’t worth it. They are. The set of screw extractors will set you back about $15 for the case of 6. That’s cheap insurance and it’s worth it to have a set of these in the shop before you need them.

 

But if you’re working with something that is truly stuck, you run the risk of breaking the extractor. That’s a real problem. Now you’re working with a broken chunk of hardened tool steel stuck in your already-stuck fastener. Go slow, take your time, use even pressure, and apply heat and penetrating fluid in order to avoid breaking an extractor.