Which way loosens a bolt

Hook the end of your box-end wrench around the head of the stuck bolt, and hold the wrench at the very end of the extender bar. With your other hand, grip the nut with a large pair of pliers. Pull sharply on the end of the wrench to try to loosen the stuck bolt. Use a pair of vice-grip pliers if the bolt or nut are stripped.

If the sharp hexagonal sides of the stuck bolt have been stripped and rounded , a box-end wrench will slip off when you try to loosen the bolt. Vice-grip pliers have teeth on the inside of their rounded jaws and can be fastened tightly around the flat surfaces of a stripped bolt. Method 2. Keep the flame on the bolt for about 15 seconds. Apply flame from the propane torch to the nut for 15 seconds. Alternate between the nut and bolt for about 2 minutes total.

This will change the overall shape of the bolt. Loosen the bolt with an extended wrench. Insert the end of your box-end wrench into a hollow metal bar. Hook the wrench onto the bolt and grasp the nut with a pair of large pliers.

Hold the nut in position and pull on the end of the wrench. Give sharp tugs and see if the bolt moves. Method 3. Remove as much rust as possible with a wire brush. Take a stiff-bristle wire brush and brush it aggressively against the rust crusted on the stuck bold and corresponding nut. Saturate the threads with a rust-penetrating liquid thread loosener. Once most of rust has been stripped away, douse both ends of the bolt with liquid thread loosener.

Let the liquid soak into the metal and work its way beneath the head of the bolt for about 30 minutes. Strike the head of the bolt times with a hammer. Once the rust-penetrating thread loosener has loosened up the rusted bolt, hit it with a hammer to jar the bolt out of the position its stuck in.

Blows from a hammer can also create micro-fractures throughout the bolt, making it easier to remove. Hit near all 6 sides of the stuck bolt at least once. Unscrew the rusted bolt with a long-handled socket wrench. Hold on the very end of the wrench and pull by exerting constant, steady pressure. Method 4. Purchase a screw extractor that matches the size of your bolt.

With the nut removed, the bolt should be much easier to remove. Unfortunately, this method destroys the nut and every once in a while the bolt too depending on its condition. Simply grind the nut and bolt until the nut no longer exists and pull the bolt right out. If your are not careful, the grinding disc may shatter and fly apart in all directions. The grinding also produces a lot of heat and sparks. You just broke off the head of the bolt you were trying to extract, leaving you with a stuck bolt and no way to remove it.

Luckily there's one last way before drilling and retapping. My bolt extractor kit came with a reverse-threaded drill bit, allowing you to drill into the bolt and then back the bolt out using the bolt extractor. This a relatively new method I have learned from a friend of mine!

I wanted to add this to the list. A great way to remove a stubborn bolt is to "shock" it loose. When I say shock it loose, I mean hammer it! To be more precise, an Air Hammer.

Using an air hammer on low pressure will make a nice vibrating but strong tool enough to loosen rust sometimes. Believe me, It works. If you tune the air pressure correctly, It will have a distinct hum. On the other end of this spectrum, if the first doesnt work, is to use a blunt or pointed tip on the head of a bolt with full PSI to the tool. This rapidly hammers it breaking the rust up mechanically. Even greater when penetrating oil has been applied.

I have found this works very, very well. To my recent discovery, There is actually a brake bleeder tool made by Phoenix Systems called a Bleeder Buster.

It works on the basis of a hammer action while putting rotational force on the stubborn bolt! I got a set from them, and I can confirm that it works very well! Another option for removing a rusty and stripped bolt?

You can always repair the hex portion of the faster! Its simple! A great way to do this is to add a new nut to the old bolt head! A great way to do this, is to use a wire brush to clean the head of the bolt. Pretty clean is acceptable. Nifty eh? Well, Guess what! This heating to cherry read while welding is also a great heat shock to the corrosion holding the fastener on!

This makes it easier to remove! One last tool I use often in my own work, Which is a life saver if you have it, Is an impact gun! Be it battery, corded, or an air impact tool! Heck, Even manual impacts work! These tools focus on a power and fast rotational hammering action to shock and loosen the bolt in one motion!

They are much less likely to round off a bolt then using a breaker bar! However, They tend to occasionally snap rusty bolts off unfortunately. Use with care, Especially if you have a powerful one! Under constant vibration from the engine of an ocean freighter, loose bolts on a large piece of mining equipment work their way off the bolted joints and roll around the hull, inflicting further damage to the equipment.

Bolted joints are critical to the safe operation of many types of equipment in a wide range of applications, including power generation, manufacturing, mining, and transportation. In a bolted joint, tightening the nut actually stretches the bolt a small amount, like pulling on a stiff spring. This stretching, or tension, results in an opposing clamp force that holds the two sections of the joint together.

If the bolt comes loose, this clamp force weakens. Loose bolts are not just an irritating nuisance. If the joint is not quickly retightened, the application may begin to leak fluid or gas, the bolt may break, equipment may become damaged, or catastrophic accidents may occur. By definition, an under-tightened bolt is already loose and the joint does not have enough clamp force to hold the individual sections together.

This can lead to sideways slippage between sections, placing unwanted shear stress on the bolt that could eventually cause it to break. These repeated movements work against the friction between the bolt and joint threads that is holding the joint together.

The design engineers who specify the tension on a bolt allow for a break-in period, during which bolt tightness relaxes to a certain degree. If the joint has not been designed properly, or if the specified tension was not achieved on the bolt at the start, this embedment of the joint can lead to a loss of clamp force.

Gasket creep. Many bolted joints include a thin, flexible gasket between the bolt head and the surface of the joint to seal the joint completely against gas or liquid leaks.

The gasket itself acts as a spring, pushing back against the pressure of the bolt and the joint face. This can also happen if the gasket area directly next the bolts is crushed, or if the bolts are not tightened evenly across the entire face of the joint. Sorry, we can't find any related questions. Try using the search bar at the top of the page to search for some keywords, or choose a topic and submit your own question.

Answers 1 to 11 of Best Answer No best answer has yet been selected by fazer Unless some diabolical engineer has been working overtime, my assunption is the threading works the same way in the U. There have been, historically, some few, very few alternatives to this rule.