The bolt snaps clean in half while loosening it… oh no.
The bolt head strips while loosening it… what?
The bolt stretches while tightening it… then strips.
I’m sure everyone has experienced this at some point.
The bolt breaks, and so does your spirit. I’ve been through this more times than I can count.
That cold, sinking feeling is something you really have to experience yourself to understand.
But after doing this for years, you start to develop an almost supernatural ability to predict when it’s going to happen.
When you’re loosening a bolt and you get that feeling it might snap or strip
the bolt is usually stuck to some degree.
If your tool is flimsy and flexes, the loosening force doesn’t transfer properly and slips, then suddenly—snap!—it breaks. Or it slips and strips the head.
If something feels suspicious, if it won’t loosen and seems severely stuck, the basics are to lubricate the bolt and use a solid, robust tool that can transmit all your force.
If it still won’t budge and won’t loosen, stop right there.
It will almost certainly break. Don’t let it.
It’s a real hassle.
It’s easier to deal with if the bolt doesn’t break and keeps its original shape.
Whether you’re drilling it out or welding, you need to face off the broken area.
If it feels dangerous, stop immediately.
When the head strips.
Most of the time it’s because the bolt or nut has worn down or stretched.
But you can sense it to some degree. The torque doesn’t catch and it just keeps stretching.
It feels similar to tightening a new spark plug.
That slippery feeling—oh, it’s stretching, oh, it’s stretching.
In this case too, stop and touch the bolt to check it, and check the other side as well.
Sometimes you can work around it with a longer bolt under the head, so it’s best not to make it more complicated than it needs to be.
When you break or strip a bolt, sometimes it’s unavoidable due to the condition of the part.
We technicians have the skills to get the bolt out and repair it, so we don’t get too surprised, but depending on the location, removing a single bolt can take an hour or three hours.
If you think something’s wrong, stop that task first, stay calm, and work carefully.
All those convenient-looking tools for removing broken bolts that flood the market… I think most of them
