i overtightened one of my cam cover bolts and snapped it. I blame it on accidentally dipping the bolt in oil just before lining it up and tightening it down, but I'm not feelin' too bright. didn't take much to break it.

guess I'll hit the hardware store tomorrow to buy an EZ out bit, and hit the dealer to order a new bolt.

dammit.

At least my APEs are in without needing to retime the bike, and the bolt went before stripping out the case.

 

Buy yourself a left hand drill. Same size as what you need for the broke bolt extractor. Chances are, the broken bolt will come out as your drilling the hole.. If not, then you needed the hole anyway for the extractor.

 

+1 EZ outs are really brittle. If you said a bad word when the bolt snapped, you'll say a hundred if the EZ out breaks. BTDT

 

I should have added.. Before you do anything else.. remove the cover, uses a sharp pick and see if you can back out the remaining part of the bolt. If it simply sheared by too much tension, and not cross threaded or bottomed out in the hole,, Now that the tension is off, it may just rotate on out. After that,, try the left hand drill bit...

 

Yeah, remove the entire cam cover. Then use vise grips on the bit still sticking out.

 

Sears sells screw/bolt outs that I've used with great results. The tip is like a drill and then it's threaded and it works really well for extracting broken off or stripped bolts and screws.

 

Oh and Lisle also sells an extractor set that has worked great for stuff like broken header bolts in cylinder heads, etc.

 

A trick I learned is there is not too much torque on the bolt is to use a spring loaded center punch. Push on it with your hand. (DO NOT USE A HAMMER!) That may loosen it until you can get a better grip on it.

 

i figured I needed an easy out bit set so just bought it. I had to drill 2 pilot holes, 1 with a 1/16th and then 1 with a 3/32 to get the EZ out bit in. that worked, but now I wish I would have just bought left hand drill bits.
the bolt broke off under the surface so vice grips wouldn't work. it's out. a new bolt was $9 but everything is back together and running great so I'm content.

 

Funny how those bolts cost $$. I think about replacing all of 'em when doing valve adjustments - to get nice clean heads and to avoid breakage from fatigue - but at $9 a pop it's not like just getting some bolts, if you know what I mean.