On Tue, 24 Apr 2007 04:29:57 GMT, "Toller" wrote:


Heat may work. OA torch, or small propane torch. Get a Vise Grip on
there first, set really tight. Remove Vise Grip, and heat until you think
it will let loose. Put Vise Grip on and say a little prayer.

Heat will make the bolt expand and just get tighter.

It seems that way in theory, but it works in practice. I had an AC
bracket on my '67 Pontiac Catalina with the 400 c.i. V-8 and since it
was a convertible and the AC was broken, and I couldn't remove the
sparkplug from the #1 cylinder, I decided to take the AC compressor
bracket out. I had cheap 3/8" socket wrenches and with my hands and
maybe a cheater bar actually super-torqued the 6" extension so that
the top was turning and the bottom wasn't moving at all.

Got another extension, ran the engine for 10 or 15 minutes and got the
bolt off with upper moderate to great effort.

Used a propane torch to heat up my motorcycle crankcase, and got out
all the bolts that I couldn't otherwise. Had stripped the head of the
first one. (They hadn't been turned since 1967, iirc.) I didn't heat
the bolt heads, but went around to the side of the case, sometimes
several inches below the head, and heated that.

Other than that, if it is configured right, you could grind the bolt head
off flush, and have enough of the shaft sticking out once you pull the
blade off. But you'd want to make damn sure first that you're going to
have enough bolt shaft left to stick out and get ahold of with a Vise Grip
or similar tool.

If he can't get the bolt off using the head, why should he be able to get it
off with vise grips on the shaft?

I agree with you here.

When I have had this problem I hit a breaker bar with a sledge hammer. It
worked, but may have taken a toll. The part the bolt went into fractured

Maybe a lighter hammer. You just want to knock the guy out, not break
his skull.

one day while I was mowing the lawn. Didn't actually do any harm, but I
didn't dare use it after that and couldn't justify the price of a
replacement part on a 14 year old mower.