Well, I thought I'd had experienced just about every weird bolt removal problem there was, but this one is new for me. I'm trying to take out the two bolts that hold the bracket for the bottom two grille housing bolts. The first one came out with some coaxing from a breaker bar and continued unscrewing. The hole it goes thru in the casting was full of crap, and it's a pretty tight fit to begin with, which was what was making it hard to get out......but it did come out. All the crud was up near the head end of the bolt....ie, the front of the casting, not the rear where the threads are. The other bolt (in the pic) is a real mother. It will fully rotate with a 2 foot breaker bar but will not come out or break. There's not enough room behind it and in front of the pulley to get a decent swing of a hammer or use a punch or drift. I don't want to leverage off the pulley for obvious reasons. In front there's not enough room to get anything between the head of the bolt and the bracket to pry while turning. I tried an impact gun, which turned it slowly....but it won't thread itself out. I really want to save the bolt if possible, so I don't want to weld to the head.....but I'm running out of ideas. Yes, I've been soaking both ends with PB Blaster every day for the past 2 weeks, and the nut is only on in the pic to prevent damage to the threads as I baby-tapped it with a small hammer......which doesn't work. Usually continued turning will grind up the crap in the bolt hole and she'll back out........but not this one, because the crap is around the unthreaded shoulder of the bolt. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated, as I want to get this buttoned up today or tomorrow.
thanks,
bob
