Ferrari Mailing List: Re: <NFC>removing broken screw question

[Jeff Greenfield (coyote]

Some thoughts that may help you.

As others have suggested, you need to drill a hole in the screw and  
try to extract it. This is easier said than done.

- soak the area with a penetrating oil such as PB Blaster, freeze-off,  
or marvel mystery oil. BTW, WD-40 is NOT a lubricant.

- file or grind the stump of the screw flat, then center punch it as  
close to the center as possible.

- this may seem obvious, but make sure you use a sharp drill bit when  
you start drilling it.

- you may want to try drilling with a left hand drill bit, sometimes  
this alone will back it out.

- once you have a hole in the middle of it, you can try an ez-out, or  
extractor of some kind, go easy the extractors don't like a lot of  
torque and WILL break.

- however, if the screw broke becuase it is rusted in the housing you  
will need to apply heat before it will come lose. You may want to  
remove the complete housing from the car. If you can't safely use a  
torch on the housing, I've had some success using a high powered (100W  
+) soldering gun  on the end of the fastener.

- if the above does not work and you have succesfully gotten a hole in  
the middle of it, you can continue drilling until you just barely  
touch the threads, and then chase the hole with a tap.

- if you haven't gotten the hole in the center, you may be able to use  
a die grinder or Dremel with an appropriate (tungsten carbide usually  
works best) bit, and carefully grind the remains out.

- you may have to heli-coil the hole if you damage or can't save the  
threads, assuming there is enough material to drill an oversize hole.

- lastly if the housing is pot metal, as some are, it is pretty  
brittle and you maybe screwed (no pun intended).

Be patient, you could easily spend many hours on this and may still  
not be able to save the housing.

Another optipn, depending on what it is, and how costly/available a  
replacement might be, would be to remove it and bring it to a machine  
or tool and die shop and have them remove it, but this may not be cost  
effective.

Good Luck, I've been there more times than I can remember as a result  
of 25+ years of repairing cars professionally in the great north east  
snow belt.

Jeff

Sent from my iPhone

On Jan 12, 2009, at 4:24 PM, "Lee S. Lingo" <lslingo [at] comcast.net> wrote:

> In my effort to replace a burned out bulb in my taillight, a screw  
> broke in
> two.  They have grown rusty and are rather narrow so it was no  
> surprise.
> I'm able to take the top off the clam-shell and have access to the  
> top of
> the remainder of the screw, but I'm not sure how to remove the tip.   
> There's
> not enough exposed to grab with needle-nose pliers.  Any suggestions?
>
>
>
> Lee
>
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