I just realized last night that the stud the power steering bracket mounts to is broken off flush with the 3.4 engine block. A buddy of mine recommended welding an allen to it. Anyone else have any clever ways of getting it out?

 

Drill it out and use an extractor. They're not that strong, so I usually use a little heat to warm it up.

 

Drilling out broken studs can really be a PITA. If it is only one or two try the above. But if you have more (Like when Troy sheared of 4 of the 6 studs to his hub - it was just weasier replacing the whole assemply. Even the 4x4 shop we work with regularly said the same thing. It is too easy to fubar a drill out once.

 

Yeah I've found the welding trick doesn't work as good as an extractor will. But you need to drill out as big a hole as possible (without hurting the threads) so you can use a bigger stronger extractor. That means it is important to start the hole in the center of the broken stud.

The worst thing you can do is drill a tiny hole and use an extractor that is too small and weak for the job and break it off in the hole, then you have to drill out the extractor and its usually harder steel than the bolt or stud was.

 

I had the above problem with an 88K5-intake man(alu.). Heat and PB Blaster didn't work, so i turned to an extractor, which broke off.....
What eventually worked was a hole almost the size of the largest thread (ext.)and slow steady movements(lots of pb)
carefully
good luck
J-

 

You can try welding nuts to the broken bolt. Thats what we do hear at work when we break studs for the exh manifold. You might go through 20 nuts before you get a good grab on it before it comes out.