How to: Stuck Exhaust Stud or Bolt Extraction

How to Remove a seized exhaust stud / bolt extraction - Good times. I try a new technique.

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Tonight we are working on the Harley Davidson sportster engine. I am gearing up for the top end disassembly so that we can replace all the seals and gaskets. And I noticed that the exhaust duds are really rusted and they are set in the heads. Now, every engine I've ever had to rebuild the exhaust studs were always a problem. They were rusted in, they were hard to remove. Sometimes I had to drill them out and tap them, which is a huge pain in the ass. So tonight I'm actually trying a new technique that I read about online where you can pop a MIG Weld right on the nut, the nut that holds the actual exhaust on if it were there, and then that you use that to back off the exhausted. So I've never done this before, but I'm crossing my fingers that it's actually going to work. We'll see. But, uh, I also think that the heat that is generated from the MIG welder would probably help too in this situation. So, all right, let's give it a shot.

So this is the result of the exhaust stud extraction from last night. I got all four out, I sure did. And, I learned a lot in the process. The first three came out pretty easy. The last one sheared off inside and, but left me about a half of an inch of stud sticking out to work with. So that was a beneficial, the mistake I made was I tried to extract the stud while it was still warm. You know, the heads are aluminum and the studs are steel, so when the studs warm up, they seed themselves into the aluminum and it's going to be tough to get 'em out. And I also didn't clean my metal enough. I should've grabbed a wire wheel and just cleaned them off. And then that way my welds would have been a little bit stronger. Had I had done those two things, I probably wouldn't have sheered off, but you know what, we got it out.

So the, the steps I took once it sheered off was I grabbed a little bit larger nut, slid it over, this stud I didn't have to thread on or anything. And then I popped my welds on the outside, uh, to, to really seek that, not on there. And then, cleaned it, popped more welds, cleaned it, popped more welds. And what that did was it gave me, a really strong surface that I can put a larger socket on there and back it out. The key was to walk away after a few minutes after the weld had set that way the metal had time to cool off to room temperature and we were able to then, you know, extract the stuff. So anyhow, thanks for watching. I do appreciate it. We'll continue on with the engine project and the sportster rebuild.