Need Opinion Of WTF To Do Now
 

Ok. I'm in the process of a rebuild. Its an s4 Fc3s. The engine is out of the car, striped to the core except.....

I cannot for the life of me get the ecentic shaft bolt off. I've tried everything including breaker bars, heat, penetrating oil, and even a 3/4 impact. In the end the 3/4 impact completly rounded it off, and i mean it is perfectly round. So im thinking the only thing left to do is cut the ecentric shaft pully off and try getting heat to the treads better. Any suggestions or experience with similar cases please help me. And yes i did search, couldn't find anything. It apears that it had be removed or attempted to be removed in the past judgeing by the end of the bolt when i got it. I'm thinking that the last person that removed it must have put a pooh load of loctite on it or just proper fucked the threads up. I bought this car a week ago and don't know the history.

The rest of the engine appears to be in great shape, I looked into the housing thru the exhaust port with a flash light and as far as i can see all the apex seals are intact and there is no scratches on the housing surfaces.

Thank you for any help.

P.S. This is an awsome site, I've learned alot from reading thru it. :bigthumb:

dude that sucks, if you cant get it off you may have to get a new ecentric shaft:dammit:

Ya I know. I'm hoping that if i cut the pully off the it will let me get heat to the threads to break them loose without damaging the ecentric shaft. Fingers Crossed. And everything was going so good up to this point. :mad:

snap the bold off , then try reverse threaded drill bits and tap them out like that

I'm guessing this is after i cut the pully off?

ya my fault i forgot the bolt is completely rounded .........but ya ........

after the rounded head is cut , drill a small hole in the center for a reference or starter hole , then Buy some reverse threaded drill bits or Reverse taps , then drill it in , Hopefully it should come right out , an make sure you lube it up like crazy

I wouldn't do that (the small hole). The reason is if you break off an easy out it is going to be extremely hard to drill.

What I would do is drill to nearly the width of the bolt, so that there is only perhaps a mm of space between the thread and the edge of the reverse drill bit / easy out. Maybe even less if possible (without boogering up the threads).

Or just plan on buying a used E shaft.

Ya that was what I was thinking. Luckly I have access to our local high school's shop so I amagine they will have the thread reversal tools there. If not I'll be makin a trip to good old Canadian Tire.

Hmm. I just had an idea. What if i was to drill the end of the bolt with the pully still on, but just far enough that the head of the bolt came off. Then I could get the pully off without having to cut it.

the pulley itself comes off without the center eshaft bolt. The 4 10mm's around the inside of the pulley and some motivation it will come off, the pulley that is. How hot did you get it? I know you told me you had a local garage try even with their impact gun, did he heat it up first? I cant remember if you said that or not.

For one, used e-shafts are a dime a dozen. Theyre the strongest part of a rotary engine, so the rarely fail, and there is little demand for them. I'll sell them all day long at $25 each.

So anyway, now that it's totally rounded, I dont think there is any way at all to get it off. I mean, if the 500-1000ft-lb of torque that the 3/4 impact gun created didnt get it out, then no amount of drilling and ez-outing is going to do jack shit, because none of those small remedy tools can hold that kind of torque.

The last ditch effort would be to take an oxyacetylene torch and get the bolt cherry red, almost to the point that it's distorting. Then find a 12 point socket, one that is just a hair too small to fit the original size of the bolt. Perhaps an 18mm 12point, or something in standard. Force that bad boy on with a big sledge, hopefully it won't split yet. Now, try to get it off with the impact. IF it doesnt work, then that bolt isn't coming out. Minus the heat spect, this is how you get locking lugs off cars where the owner no longer has the key.

Next up, I would take that same OA torch, or a plasma cutter, and melt the entire head of the bolt off. So that you can get the hub and the front cover and all the counterweights and such off the shaft, allowing you to disassemble the engine. Just buy a used shaft and hub and go on with life.

Wow, Id rather pay 25 bucks then go through all of that. I didnt know Eshafts were that cheap.

No he didn't heat it. But I had tried before with heat/penetrating fluid then a 1/2 impact (its snap-on so its prety strong).

Thanks for all the input, had no idea that the shafts were that cheap. Wpgrex do you guys have any used eshafts? Hes realy close to me so that why I ask him.

We welded on another bolt onto the end of the old one and are going from there. Wish me luck.

that better be one strong ass weld :-)

Be a man and pull it out with your teeth.

Just drill it out. Use a drill bit that is just smaller than the OD of the bolt. Use your drimmel with a cut-off wheel, cut a nice surface to start drilling with. Drill away the meat of the bolt. As you get inside of it, the rest will crumble, or you may have to use a punch and a 4 pound. OR do what Rotory res said to do only cut off the head remove the cover and disassemble and pony up $25. I would buy it from rotory res as it was his time and effort to transfer HIS knowledge about the cheap shafts. Nice people should get something for there efforts, maybe a Ruths Crisp Steakhouse gift certificate. It is the giving season.

no eshafts for sale sorry bro. I need all I have