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I need help with an extremely obnoxious stuck and broken screw. Short version: screw broke, I drilled into what's left and took an Irwin screw extractor to it, and I cannot turn the extractor with any amount of force I apply. I even got my kid to help and it wouldn't budge. I'm at the point where I'm worried I'm going to break something if I torque it harder. I've already tried WD40ing the crap out of it. I have not tried, but plan to try, sticking my butane torch in there to try to heat it up. That's going to be slightly tricky because the broken screw and threads are beneath some wood, which I don't want to burn, but I can take my chances. Does anyone have more suggestions for getting the drat thing to budge? Long version: This is one of the screws holding the latches on to the hardtop of a new-to-me 2001 Miata. The soft top latches and the middle latches on the hard top were no problem, especially since I grabbed a new Wera driver just for the occasion, to make sure I didn't have some Phillips vs JIS nonsense. One of the previous owners seems to have decided that the front latches needed to be extra secure, though, and used some sort of insanely gummy pink threadlocker or other adhesive. Five of the six screws in the two front latches yielded to carefully applied screwdriver torque. This one just stripped. I took an extractor to it and it broke off where the screw encountered the threaded part of the socket, so I used my Dremel to smooth out the broken area, drilled again, applied the extractor, and here I am. Since it's a 19-year-old hardtop I really hope to avoid some nuclear option where I have to drill it and (try to) retap it but I'm getting nervous.
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Oct 16, 2020 01:10
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| # ¿ May 3, 2024 03:02 |
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I'll give that a shot tomorrow. Thanks!
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Oct 16, 2020 03:19
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Elviscat posted:This is a good idea, especially if you can get a cheap one that goes up to 11, that threadlocker should let go when it gets hot enough, and make the screw much easier to extract. My old cheap butane multipurpose device failed pretty badly at this. After ten minutes with the iron touching the stub of the broken screw, my IT thermometer showed it had reached about 170F. I don't understand how that works, exactly. Heat transfer into the rest of the panel that the screw is stuck in? Then I tried torch mode instead, thinking maybe I could get in there precisely enough to avoid the wood trim, and smoke started coming out of every hole in the thing, along with a truly terrible smell. I am losing faith in the possibility of success here. I worry that even if I get the screw out, the threads will be mangled, which in turn makes me think maybe I should skip the nonsense and go right to drill and tap.
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Oct 17, 2020 00:05
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