7 replies to this topic

[Duncy H]

I was going round today greasing up the car today and came to the upper balljoint on the offside and the nipple snapped off When i replaced the balljoint it was really tight and i gave up on replacing it but now half of it is trapped in there

Here's a pic of what came off..


Just wondered if there is anything i can do to dig it out at all?

[OllieTheWelder]

Drill it?

[charie t]

I used to use an old torx bit tapped into it when i was seeing these snapped off. They're not normally in excessively tight

[dow62]

_{Drill a small hole up the centre and try using a easiout, some localised heat would help too. Access will be a pain tho !}

[Tamworthbay]

Small stud extractor and heat. Something like this: http://www.ebay.co.u...=item3cbdff2318 but get the best quality you can.

[dklawson]

NO. No EasyOuts (which is also what is shown in the link above). EasyOuts are hard... which makes them brittle. If you break an EasyOut off in this broken nipple the recourse for removing the broken tool and nipple is quite expensive.

Apply penetrating oil (not WD-40) to the broken part of the nipple, then try driving the old Torx bit into the broken fitting as suggested by Charie-T. If the Torx bit does not work, all it will do is round out the nipple's center hole (larger).

If that happens, make some telephone calls to local industrial suppliers inquiring about left-hand drill bits. Once you find a supplier, buy a small set or at least the 1/8", 5/32", and 3/16" sizes. Use a cordless drill set to its lowest torque level and drill slowly down the center of the nipple with progressively larger left-hand bits starting with the 1/8". As you remove material, one of those three drill sizes will have relieved enough pressure on the threads that the broken part of the nipple will "stick" to the drill bit and you will see it "back out" of the tapped hole. Failing that... if a drill bit never catches, by the time that you use the 3/16" drill bit you are only a small step away from the 1/4" UNF tap drill needed to remove the rest of the nipple and re-tap the hole.

[tiger99]

Well, dklawson and I are going to agree about something involving a thread! Getting the left hand drill bits is the only problem which is likely to happen. They do exist.

I had one of these nipples break in about 1969, before I had ever seen a Torx bit (before they were invented?), and as I recall, I ground a piece of tough steel, likely a hex bolt, to a tapered triangular point and bashed that in. I don't remember spending much time on it, and suspect that hammering the spike in was sufficient to crack any rust that was holding it.

Easi-outs scare me, because I don't (yet?) have a spark eroder to be able to remove broken ones, and they feel very brittle. I have a set, never dared to use them, as there always was a safer way.

[Tamworthbay]

Never had a problem with stud extractors personally but mine are a VERY good quality set. They have got me out of a few holes (no pun intended). Whereas I have spent a good few hours with the spark eroder after snapping drill bits over the years!