Ok so when I got my yj it had a warn front bumper on it. The passenger side bolt that goes inter the frame, well the head it gone from it. So I want to drill it through or something so the bumper would be a strong recovery point. however, if I do is, I will not be able to access the nut to tighten it. When I get it apart I guess I can see if maybe I can drill into the tube crossmember and get a bolt through the bumper, remae and xmember. Here is the other problem, the drivers side torx bolt it rusted in pretty good. I have been hitting it with pe blaster for 2 days, I even am using a piece of flexible tubing to get it on the threads in the frame rail. It is not budging. Actually the torx hole in the bolt is beginning to strip out. I wanted to take the bumper off so I can grind off some rust and reprint it, also to give me more room to work on the reattachemnt of it. What should I do? I have a RE extreme duty lift which means that the shackle blocks access to the bolt unless I have the jeep on jack stands. So it would be a bit tight to get a grinder in there to grid off the bolt head. Or I could just leave it and do something else with the pass side. I really wanted a bottom mount for the pass side for recovery and if I wanted to tow it with a towbar.
Well I got this figured out a while back, alot of heat and some luck with a nut buster channel lock, then just air chiseled the nut out of the frame on the other side and Im good to go. But what is the best type of drill bit to drill out a bolt? The head is sheared off one of my t-case bolts.
What I have found works for the torx bolts is to drill them. The most critical aspect of drilling and tapping is to get the drill centered. The torx inset will do that.
First select a drill bit that will just go into the torx opening and use the torx access to center it. Get that drill started to the point that it creates a depression in the center of the bottom of the torx opening.
Then switch to a small bit, something like a 1/8 or 3/16 size. Carefully drill all the way through the bolt being certain to keep aligned with the bolt.
Once you have drilled through go to the next size bigger bit, say a 1/4" and drill that. Again, all the way through the bolt. If you have an easy out, go to the first size that you can get a decent sized easy out into.
As you start to use the easy out, work the penetrating oil in to loosen the threads.
The idea is to keep the center hole as small as possible so that you keep as much meat in the bolt. That way when you twist on the easy out it doesn't expand the bolt to make it fit tighter in the hole.
If it is rusted so bad that you can't get it out with the easy out, you work your way up in bit sizes till you reach the inside of the threads of the nut. Now you can chase the threads with a tap.
You have one advantage here in that the strength of the bumper bolts is not in pulling out of the nut but pulling at 90 degrees. That means that you have leway in the strength of the threads and can lose some and still have a secure bumper mount.
Patience is your best helper when doing this. Do it right and it will work. Do it quickly and it won't.
If you do end up drilling the threads, and it is centered, you can tap it to the next size also.
Good Luck.
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