The sled is finally back together and my last thing tonight was to start it up and bleed the coolant. Squirted some pb blaster on the screw and let it set for a couple of minutes. I went back and of course I jacked the head up on it. No problem, out comes the craftsman screw extractor. Easy you'd think but no. The extractor actually snapped off in the screw of course after it took the head off the screw. So now I'm here with a hardened extractor buried in the bleeder screw. I don't know how I can expect to get it out. I don't know that I will be able to drill the hardened steel of the extractor. I still ran the sled and I'm pretty sure I got the system fairly free of bubbles since both tunnel exchangers and the rear were warm.
Soo.....now what?
Soo.....now what?
i have never had any luck drilling them after tool broke off in there.....hopefully you got all the air out so you wont have to mess with it ....
Well it took almost a full gallon of coolant. I don't even know if I should screw with it. It would be nice if I could get something to grab (going clockwise) that would unscrew the extractor and then...well heck I don't know. I'd really like to have everything in working order that way I don't have to deal with it later. Say something comes up down the road when I need the bleeder. Seems like an expensive screw if my only option to fix is a new exchanger....
daman
New member
is this in the water rail or cooler?? if water rail just look for a used one to
replace it,,,PITA getting that out now
replace it,,,PITA getting that out now
daman
New member
i see you said cooler,may have to get a used one...
Nothin like after just putting it all back together....
olny other way is find a good welding shop and have them weld a peice on the broken tool and remove it that way ....or change cooler
The extractor tip is pretty small. I did some reading other places and other suggestions were to strike the extractor with a punch and try to break it up since it's brittle. The other was to use a small bit and drill a "moat" around the hardened piece. I don't know that either of these solutions is a good one. Same as with the welder. That is a small screw to begin with.
Just ride it and worry about it in the spring if it bothers you. Honestly I have yet to have a problem getting the air out of the cooling system on any of my sleds. My redhead I actually have to crack the bleed screw. My srx I've never had to touch. Now maybe I'm just getting lucky, but........
The cooling system actually worked fine. It's working. Granted I'll want to keep checking the coolant level here in the next day or so. It's definitely not locked up coolant/air pocket wise.
sickric
New member
I have successfully broken up extractor tips into small pieces and pulled them out with dental pic tools, some of the better extractor kits have reverse drill angles cut into the bits , so if you tried that,and it would catch a piece it could walk it right out, I have had this work for me on occasion. Just a few things that worked for me in the past. Good luck!
Ric
Ric
I'll give it a shot and see what I can do. I certainly don't want to start something I can't finish though.
I was able to tap the extractor with a punch and get it to spin clockwise and "un screw" it. I tried a couple other extractors but none would bite. I ended up just drilling the original screw and tapping it and putting a screw with M4x.7 thread. There is just a fraction of material of the original screw left. Any worry of that working itself out?
Concept Carbon
New member
i would drill out for a 1/4 20 or m6 or by a new screw.
Does anyone know what size the original bleeder is? I have a set of metric taps and I might already be close where it's a quick redrill and tap project.