Bad luck - bolt broke off on impeller cone

[bigtexan99]

While changing out my wear ring and impeller on my pump, I started to remove the 3 bolts that hold the oil reservoir cone onto the back of the pump.

Bolts 1 and 2 came out with no issue, Bolt 3 was tight. Twisted on it, and the bolt snapped in half, the bolt head and about 1mm of bolt came out, leaving the shaft in the impeller housing aluminum ring.

Attempted to remove bolt by drilling it with a left hand bit, and then inserting a tool. All that did was chew up the bolt more. Finally just drilled most of it out. Used the die/tap tool to insert into hole to rebuild threads, and the damm die/tap tool broke off in the hole!~ Was not even turning hard!!!

Now what?

My thought is to drill 3 new 6 x 1.0 holes into the aluminum ring of the pump housing and attach the cone to the new holes. Would this be okay?

In this sample photo, I would drill 3 new holes so there would be a total of six.

 

[tater salad]

i dont believe u will get 3 new holes in proper spots, would have to be precise, -- but, u can take the housing to a nachinist, they will get out the easy out and retap it, or helicoil it, they use diamond bits, it wont cost too much, where i live, probably bout 30.00 plus helicoil if needed, that they can put on a drill press also

 

[Seadoobuddy]

Tater - Good idea. let the experts tackle the job.

 

[Rabid]

The back outs are harder than the bolt and will cause your drill bit to dance when trying to drill them out. Take it to a machinist like tater stated. you will spend money on a new part if not careful.

get the ski back together, the time to ride is near

mike

 

[Dr Honda]

The only way to remove the broken tap (if it's stuck) is to burn it out with an EDM machine. I have a small "Hole Popper" EDM machine at my shop for just that problem... but, you have a plastic pump, So........

1) I don't think it will take the heat without warping

2) It will cost more to ship it to me, pay the shop time to remove the tap, and repair the threads, than the pump is worth.


Also... Since the aluminum insert is molded into the plastic housing... there isnt' enough aluminum to drill 3 new holes.


At this point... my suggestion would be to just find a used pump. A stripped plastic pump should cost you $50 on eaby. I've bought bronze pumps for $60 complete. (if you look around)

 

[parrothd]

Buy a used one...

 

[howie099]

I bought 2 used bronze pumps on E-bay for $60 each. The only advantage to the new ones is that they have new bearings and seals installed for you.

 

[RFoster130]

Yeah I've seen them go for under $50 used. I would go that route.

 

[bigtexan99]

Update: I was able to drill 3 new holes into the aluminium ring, build threads in them, and remount the impeller cone. Air pressure tested to 20lbs and all was fine.

The main difference in my ring and the sample ring posted in an earlier picture is that the 155mm pump has a thicker aluminum ring as shown here. There is plenty of room to drill new holes. In the earlier picture, you can see there is not enough aluminum material in which to drill holes. If this happens to you, make sure your ring has enough surface area to accept the new holes.