I snapped a head off of one of the transmission fluid pan bolts! How screwed am I? SHould i just leave it and see if it leaks from there? Or should i seal with something? I know i will probably never be able to take the pan off again so would maybe just putting something in the hole to seal it up be a good idea?

 

All you need to do is drill out the broken bolt. and replace it. Many times you get lucky if you use a left handed drill bit, the broken bolt will start to spin out before you even finish drilling through it.

 

JB weld and call it good

 

Just drill the bolt out. Don't use JB Weld !

 

Reverse drill bit, easeout, or something to get the broken bolt out. DO NOT use JB weld. DO NOT leave the bolt out and hope it dosent leak. It will.

 

Heli-coil

 

If the bolt head snapped off, the female threads should still be good, no need for a heli-coil. Likes been said, just back-out the bolt shank and install a new bolt.

 

lol i was kidding. just do what everyone else has mentioned.

 

Will i be ok to drive it tomorrow? So i just go buy a reverse drill bit and drill into the bolt until it backs out? And could anyone tell me the bolt size for the tranny pan off of the top of their head?

 

bump. can i drive it?

 

If only one bolt snapped your probably fine and it will most likely never leak a drop.

I broke a bolt off on my Grand Am's tranny pan and it was fine for the next two years until I sold it. Not one drop leaked out.

 

How'd it break? Did it seize in the hole and break when you tried to loosen it, or did it break when you tightened it too much? The latter is easier to deal with.

It's an M6-1.0x15m/m screw, so you won't be able to use more than a 3/16" drill to get through it if you want to use the same size screw - or you can overdrill it to accept a 1/4" screw (1/4" = 6.35m/m,) but you'll have to keep track of which screw is which.

You can also drill the screw out and use a screw thread insert (like Heli-Coil or Re-Coil - but use a wire insert instead of a bushing, since you're limited for material down there...) to restore the original size.

I don't recall the torque spec for the AW4 sump screws, but it's relatively low - somewhere around 60-80 pound-inches. You should be able to find it on my site.

Torque specs are important on things like that - engine oil sump, transmission oil sump, valve cover, and the like...

 

It broke off when trying to tighten it because the pan was leaking because i under tightened a few bolts trying to be too careful so i went back and torqued them all down and one just snapped as soon as i put pressure on the wrench

 

Had to laugh...how many times I have tweaked a bolt just a little tiny bit more to make SURE it stops leaking only to feel it snap. God, what an awful feeling.

Anyway, this is much better than breaking one you're trying to remove - on those you KNOW you'll break the easy-out, too.

But that is worth mentioning - take care you don't break the easy-out our you'll have a case-hardened tool in there that can't be drilled. My preference is to drill out the bolt as much as possible without damaging the threads use the easyout gently. If no joy...back off. Better to scar up the threads and re-tap - in most cases you can get away with the same thread size and just clean up the threads a bit. But even if you had to re-tap larger that is better than trying to drill a hardened tool out.

Ask me how I know.

 

I have an 86 xj and i just lost one of the bolts when i was changeing the filter and seal in my tranny. Decided just to see what would happen if i put atf in it anyways, didnt leak. but if i were your i would still get a new bolt for it. and all you have to do is either drill it out. or use a tap and die to pull it out. shouldnt be that hard. its just a bolt.