I broke off the dizzy hold down screw.
Then I broke the easy-out off in the hole I drilled in what was left of the screw.
Now what?
I can't take the temper out of the hard bits of the Easy-out steel because the part it's in is aluminum.
Can I use acid to rust out the steel, but keep the aluminum in tact? That's something I do if I break a bit off in some gold- I just drop it in the pickle (mild sulfuric) for a day and the drill bit rusts right out. But that's precious metals; practically inert. I don't know if there's anything that will eat steel but not eat aluminum.
Surely this must've happened to others here. (?)

 

You could drill out whatever is left of the bolt then retap the hole and use a helicoil to bring it to the original size again, then use a new bolt to hold the dizzy down. This is probably what I would do. I just don't know if helicoils are available in that size.

 

WTF is going on here. First, it was Kenn. Now, Sterling. I hope this **** doesnt happen to me!!!

Darn Noooooobbbbbbbbsss

A spray of WD-40 and a long-nose plier helps me alot. thats why I always grab those screws at the junkyard. Except, I have to dump at least a bucket of screws/nut & bolts every year due to this bad habit.

 

yep, i have done this too. i ovaled out the opening on the dizzy and drilled/tapped a brand new hole just above the old one. works great.

 

To take the temper out of the easy out, you will have to get itat least dull red in color. Not an option. Heat may, however, be your friend here.

Get a set of visegrips clamped on the easy out, then heat the aluminum around it, trying not to heat the easyout. The differential in heat expansion may release it.

Another trick I've seen on removing exhaust studs is, heat them red hot, stick a lump of beeswax on it, then grip it with one of those twisting stud pullers. The idea here being, the stud willl transfer heat into the surrounding metal. the beeswax quickly pulls the heat out of the stud and shrinks it, thus relieving the grip between the two.

 

I have had good lick welding a nut on the broken ez-out with a wire feed welder. Then when it cools the bond was broken between the aluminum. Best of luck

 

Lots of penetrating oil and time (like overnight), a couple of heating and cooling cycles, and either vice grips, or possibly grinding a slot in the easy out and backing it out with a screw driver.

 

I did this about 10 years ago. I tried a lot of the things mentioned here. I ended up drilling a hole in the flange below the dist. and put a threaded stud bent at a right angle so that it comes up along side the dizzy flange in the slot and this has been holding the dizzy firm all these yearts. Not pretty but it works. I figured when I rebuilt the engine I'd replace the front and fix it right. Problem is the dang thing keeps running fine and only has 95K on it so I have a ways to go before it blows.

Good luck.

 

If you substitute the plate from an RX4 distributor, the adjustment slot is longer.

 

I would find a cobalt bit and drill out the hole to a larger size and tap it. Remember to drill at a slow speed with a harder bit than the easy out. High speed for soft metals, and Slow for harder metals.

The best way to do it is Drill it out, and take it to a place who can weld aluminum and weld it to the top, take a sander and sand it flat, then redrill and retap the hole. The only problem is you may not be able to drive the car to get it welded, and you could run the chance of some debris going in the dizzy hole. Pluse you have to get the hole at around a 45 degree angle to fill it with weld.

Another idea would be to drill aand tap hole just above the plate itself, and use a lockwasher and flat washer to "pinch" it in place.

You could try to take a torch to it and heat it up good and hot, and try to turn it out that way, if there's anything left to the easyout. Just don't get it too hot.

 

What a great bunch of ideas! Thanks for all the help.
The biggest problem aside of the tempered EZ-out steel is the fact that it's busted off flush. There's nothing to grab at all.
I have diamond burs for shaping stones and such, but they are really tiny. (No steel bit is gonna touch that chunk of EZ-out steel.)
Drilling another smaller diameter hole farther up, and modding the dizzy plate was something I was thinking of and hoping not to have to do.
The AC was ditched long ago, leaving some nice n' serious bungs down below the dizzy top that I could bolt a bracket of some kind to and ...whatever- This was sounding like something easier than moding the dizzy plate.

I hadn't thought of welding to the top of the screw/EZ-out.

 

Would it be possible to slot the broken piece and just use a screw driver along with some heat to turn it out? Sounds feasible.

 

thats what I did on a frineds car last week, slotted the head of the easy out with my die grinder and then I unscrewed the easyout.

kenn

 

I broke on off putting the oil pickup tube back on after I rebuilt my motor and I just used a very small die grinder bit to cut down through the center of the easyout and finally was able to get the broken easyout removed then redrilled and used a larger easyout to remove the broken bolt, but then again I was working with steel instead of alum. Good luck.
Todd

 

Could you punch it out?

 

Use a deep well socket underneath it to support the flange, put the socket on the end of a long extension combined with a floor jack to provide height adjustment.

 

Then drive the bolt down into the socket with a steel punch. Why be subtle when brute force will do the job, eh?

 

I've been trying to post this for nine hours now, but the fn proxy errors will only let me write two lines at a time! lol. PMs don't work now either, tried that to.

 

The irony is that for all your efforts, I think you may not be thinking of the screw I'm talking about!

It'll have to wait till the weekend again. I have it cobjobbed now so it's set and won't go anywhere.

 

LOL, you mean you're not talking about the one that keeps it from rotating? I'd better go look at mine to see what you mean...Can I at least get an A for effort?

 

Well yeah, that's what I'm talkin about. But I dunno what YOU'RE talkin about!

 

BTW, Carl says if anyone ever has a problem with the forum not running correctly, they can feel free to email him directly.

 

If you ever get this figured out, you may want to consider a stud and nut like early engines. The bolts on later engines worry me now and then. Perhaps there is a reason Mazda went back to a stud and nut on '86 and later engines. Good luck.

 

Yeah Jeff, that's the way to go.

 

good call, i'm gonna hit that up as well. a stud would be muuuuuch better there.