Timing belt emergency

[drunken_panda]

Help! I am in big trouble. While trying to change the timing belt in my 93 4cly, I managed to snap the bolt holding the no1 idler pulley and bolt holding the camshaft timing pulley. I don't think I can get the camshaft bolt back, but I believe that there is enough thread on the rest of the screw that I am OK. As for the idler pulley, I believe I can get it out when I get the inner timing belt cover off. But I can't remove the camshaft pulley. Please help!!!!!

[OEMonkey]

Originally Posted by drunken_panda

Help! I am in big trouble. While trying to change the timing belt in my 93 4cly, I managed to snap the bolt holding the no1 idler pulley and bolt holding the camshaft timing pulley. I don't think I can get the camshaft bolt back, but I believe that there is enough thread on the rest of the screw that I am OK. As for the idler pulley, I believe I can get it out when I get the inner timing belt cover off. But I can't remove the camshaft pulley. Please help!!!!!

Damn, too much wheaties for breakfast.
If I understand this correctly, you broke both bolts in half and you need to extract the other half left on the cam and where the idler bolts in. I don't understand why you said you can't remove the idler PULLEY when the bolt holding it is broken. If you just need to extract the broken bolt on the cam, try a vise grip if theres enough sticking out. Or tapping(spinning) it out w/ a small hammer/chisel. Or drill it out, you'll need to raise the engine (jack it up fr the oil pan) so you get a good angle. Or just remove the cam.

[drunken_panda]

The thing is both were not that diffcult to snap. What happened what I was trying to remove the idler pulley when the bolt snapped. Then I tried to remove the cam pulley to remove the inner cover when that one snapped. The idler pulley bolt is just flush with the inner cover, so I can't get a set of vice grips on them. There is a piece of metal sticking out but its facing the wrong way to do the hammer and chisel thing.

[CrawlingEye]

You can always try drilling it out, there's special drill sets designed for removing bolts and stuff like that, just be careful you don't break the bits off.

[drunken_panda]

Thought about that but there isn't enough room to get my drill in there.

Originally Posted by CrawlingEye

You can always try drilling it out, there's special drill sets designed for removing bolts and stuff like that, just be careful you don't break the bits off.

[dc_98_cam]

Depending on your resources, you might be able to take a short piece of stock steel rod and spot weld this onto the existing bolt face. Three or four good spots around the circumference should be enough .... weld metal has a lot of strength. Then put a pipe wrench on the stock piece and twist .... Watch out for sparks from the welding process ..... have fire extinguisher handy, and maybe find something non-flammable to cover up the surrounding area as much as possible.

[drunken_panda]

I am unable to do that. Thinking of just taking it to the mech and letting him finish it. Anyone in College Station TX area looking to make a few bucks .

[Stillrunning]

Sorry to hear about your troubles. It looks as if the last person to do the TB over torqued the bolts and weakened them. Your biggest problem is access as you know. Maybe a right angled drill could drill out the bolt but I don't think an easy out will have the strength to crack the bolt free. You may have to drill out just about all of the bolt, a difficult job to do without drilling into the cam and block threads. I would attempt the idler pulley bolt first. If it can't be done it may mean a replacement engine.

[toyomoho]

The cam pulley normally slides off and is NOT a press fit. Can you place something behind the pulley and gentle start prying it? Make sure you switch sides when prying so the pulley will not bind on the camshaft.

Once the pulley is off, see how much bolt thread is hanging out (if any). In theory with the bolt head removed (popped off) the remaining bolt should be free to rotate easily by hand (unless the bolt and cam threads were somehow cross threaded during installation).

If some threads are exposed try using any tool you have to rotate it CCW. If no threads are exposed, get a small sharp cold chisel. Hit the front of the threads to make a grove, and then start tapping on one side of the bolt face to rotate it CCW. Sounds crazy but it does work.

Can always remove the cam, take it to a machine shop and let them remove the bolt.

Try the same procedure with the other bolt.

There are 90-degree drill heads you can use to drill the bolt head but this may be asking for trouble if you don’t know what you are doing..

[CrawlingEye]

if the above works and you can get it out enough to expose thread, there's also tools that can be used that allow you to hammer over the threads and then using a socket, just spin it off. I've used them in the past and they've worked quite well.