Broken tap - IRO hack n tap
Beach Bum
Joined: Jul 2011
Posts: 6,123
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From: Cape Hatteras, North Carolina
Year: 2000 WJ
Model: Grand Cherokee
Engine: 4.0
edited; corrected tap types.
Last edited by SteveMongr; May 4, 2014 at 01:50 PM.
Thread Starter
Junior Member
Joined: Dec 2013
Posts: 42
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From: South Shore of Long Island
Year: 2000
Model: Cherokee
Engine: 4.0
When this happened to me, I filed pins into a spare 9mm 1/4" drive socket. The pins keyed into the clearing flutes on the broken tap and I could use a wrench to back the tap out. It took a couple hours to make the key but I wasn't sitting under my Audi scratching my head for days in a row.
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Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 14,479
Likes: 805
From: Blunt, South Dakota
Year: 97
Model: Cherokee (XJ)
Engine: 4.6 stroker
Thread Starter
Junior Member
Joined: Dec 2013
Posts: 42
Likes: 0
From: South Shore of Long Island
Year: 2000
Model: Cherokee
Engine: 4.0
Junior Member
Joined: Apr 2014
Posts: 88
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From: Alabama
Year: 2000
Model: Cherokee
Engine: 4.0
Thread Starter
Junior Member
Joined: Dec 2013
Posts: 42
Likes: 0
From: South Shore of Long Island
Year: 2000
Model: Cherokee
Engine: 4.0
https://i.imgur.com/4HiMDsW.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/PR1Z5dL.jpg
This is it. Worked on it for an hour. Tried to heat the shaft and tap it out. Over and over again. No dice. I kept the rear drive shaft off.
Can I drive the 6 miles to the shop on the front drive shaft alone? It's flat paved road and my hazards will DEFINITELY be on. What do you guys think?
https://i.imgur.com/PR1Z5dL.jpg
This is it. Worked on it for an hour. Tried to heat the shaft and tap it out. Over and over again. No dice. I kept the rear drive shaft off.
Can I drive the 6 miles to the shop on the front drive shaft alone? It's flat paved road and my hazards will DEFINITELY be on. What do you guys think?
Thread Starter
Junior Member
Joined: Dec 2013
Posts: 42
Likes: 0
From: South Shore of Long Island
Year: 2000
Model: Cherokee
Engine: 4.0
https://i.imgur.com/4HiMDsW.jpg https://i.imgur.com/PR1Z5dL.jpg This is it. Worked on it for an hour. Tried to heat the shaft and tap it out. Over and over again. No dice. I kept the rear drive shaft off. Can I drive the 6 miles to the shop on the front drive shaft alone? It's flat paved road and my hazards will DEFINITELY be on. What do you guys think?
::CF Administrator::





Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 14,479
Likes: 805
From: Blunt, South Dakota
Year: 97
Model: Cherokee (XJ)
Engine: 4.6 stroker
https://i.imgur.com/4HiMDsW.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/PR1Z5dL.jpg
This is it. Worked on it for an hour. Tried to heat the shaft and tap it out. Over and over again. No dice. I kept the rear drive shaft off.
Can I drive the 6 miles to the shop on the front drive shaft alone? It's flat paved road and my hazards will DEFINITELY be on. What do you guys think?
https://i.imgur.com/PR1Z5dL.jpg
This is it. Worked on it for an hour. Tried to heat the shaft and tap it out. Over and over again. No dice. I kept the rear drive shaft off.
Can I drive the 6 miles to the shop on the front drive shaft alone? It's flat paved road and my hazards will DEFINITELY be on. What do you guys think?

...and is the tap in the package the same as the broken one? If it is, you have the right tap...if not, then NOW you have the right tap, LOL
Attachment 241234
Also, have you ever tapped threads before? If not, it is a kinda an art form, LOL...you gotta go slow, and be straight, you can't let that sucker wiggle even a little, or it will snap. Get it started, then use generous amounts of cutting fluid, and cut the threads one full turn, back off half a turn, one full turn, back off half a turn, and once you have some decent threads going, back it out almost all the way, clean the shavings out of the flutes, continue to tap using the method above. Do NOT rush through it, patience and precision is key here. Keep us posted on your progress!
Last edited by Rogue4x4; May 4, 2014 at 07:11 PM.
Thread Starter
Junior Member
Joined: Dec 2013
Posts: 42
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From: South Shore of Long Island
Year: 2000
Model: Cherokee
Engine: 4.0
Resized and painted, per your request ...and is the tap in the package the same as the broken one? If it is, you have the right tap...if not, then NOW you have the right tap, LOL Also, have you ever tapped threads before? If not, it is a kinda an art form, LOL...you gotta go slow, and be straight, you can't let that sucker wiggle even a little, or it will snap. Get it started, then use generous amounts of cutting fluid, and cut the threads one full turn, back off half a turn, one full turn, back off half a turn, and once you have some decent threads going, back it out almost all the way, clean the shavings out of the flutes, continue to tap using the method above. Do NOT rush through it, patience and precision is key here. Keep us posted on your progress!
::CF Administrator::





Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 14,479
Likes: 805
From: Blunt, South Dakota
Year: 97
Model: Cherokee (XJ)
Engine: 4.6 stroker
It's the same tap. So it WAS the right tap but maybe the wrong guy doing it haha. I was soo nervous cutting that I would go quarter turn or half a turn at most and then back it out completely and dip in cutting oil. Maybe too many back and forth movements as in I should have done a full turn AND THEN backed it out half way. Either way it sucks.
Thread Starter
Junior Member
Joined: Dec 2013
Posts: 42
Likes: 0
From: South Shore of Long Island
Year: 2000
Model: Cherokee
Engine: 4.0
After I heated it I used three points of attack (since one of them chipped off) and tried to tap it on the angle you showed in your pics. Lots of little taps on those spots and nothing. I ended up hitting it a little harder on each one and nothing happened. No movement at all.





