Up $h** creek right now, trans cooler install failure

Today I finally got around to installing my trans cooler that I bought a couple years ago. I’m mounting the cooler now, top bolt in the horn location went fine, bottom bolt in the factory threaded location sheered off while I was wrenching it on… now I’m up a creek. Gotta get this install done tonight as I’ve got work in the morning and need my truck. Is the best course of action to remove my lower grill assembly, drill out the bolt, and use one of my own bolts and nuts to attach the bottom of the cooler? Anyone have this or something similar happen to them? The provided bolt felt too tight, but began threading normally and it was the one designated for this location.

edit: this is the genuine cooling systems kit and just for the record, no power tools were used in the initial boogering of the bolt at hand.

 

Yeah I would probably remove the grill assembly and get the bolt out. If you have a bolt and nut to thread through, I would do that.

 

I'm lost. The world goes with GCS, what brand is this?

Regarding the bottom bolt that sheered, against what? Itself or a hidden welded nut? I'm just lost.

 

Hidden welded nut. This is the genuine cooling systems kit with an MHX-514 cooler. Sorry, should’ve stated that.

 

Remove, drill, replace. It's newly installed, so shouldn't be hard. An easy out/screw extractor would be helpful.

 

May not exactly help your situation. But this is what I used to get that bolt in, went in through the lower part of front bumper, direct shot to the bolt.

 

I wonder if I can do that and not remove my bumper with an extractor to get it out now… it was so rough going in, I doubt I can extract.

 

If you can get a straight shot to it and drill a small hole through, you can then take a small screw with a washer to work as a temporary fix until you get more time. That bracket doesn't look weight bearing as much as just securing it from flapping around. Then work on getting the tools you need for a proper bumper removal (not difficult) and extraction/re-tap and new bolt.

 

A large zip tie wrapped around the bracket and the radiator bracket behind it, holding it tight to the frame, should hold it fine till you can get back to it. As Toyotoholic said, it doesn't appear to be weight bearing at all. Hell, if you don't have zip tie handy, tie it with a shoe lace.

 

Probably different thread pitches. I don’t like using impacts unless I’ve started the bolt by hand.

 

I couldn’t reach it with my drill so I sheered that sucker with my wrench haha

 

This.

 

I have a handful of emergency stainless steel zipties for just the structural occasion!

 

Ran to Home Depot. This bolt is not fazed by the easy-out in the slightest. Moved to just trying to drill through it with my hammer drill… it’s still not amused…
But I was smart enough to stick a piece of wood between the drill and the radiator in the event that I succeed.

 

If that was mine, I would forget about that boogered up hole and just move the mounting bracket slightly to the left, drill a new hole, and secure it with a new nut, bolt, and locking washer.

 

As others have said, get it drivable for work tomorrow and tackle it another time when you're not as pressured. Probably not the answer you want right now, but take 5 and come back to it when there isn't as much urgency.

If your transmission was destroyed, that would be a problem. This is an inconvenience, don't turn it into a problem.

 

I was considering that, but was unsure if there would be any negative effect on the cooler if it wasn’t straight up and down.

 

Just move the bottom bracket, not the entire cooler which will still be level and it doesn't effect anything.

 

It’s a single piece bracket that holds the cooler

 

My bad, thought the lower piece was separate.

 

Since the bracket is one piece, still seems like you have plenty of room to drill an additional hole on either side to secure it. Good luck.

 

Secure it with zip ties, shoe laces, or Gorilla Tape tonight so it’s drivable for work in the morning.

Sleep on it, and contemplate a solution or the tools you need to un-bugger it tomorrow. Then proceed with a plan.

Suggest you make it to next weekend, take off all the stuff in the way so you have room to work, and then do it correctly taking your time. Hit it with some zink primer and some Krylon to mask the damage and seal against rust once you get the hole cleaned up.

Take a breather.

 

This.

sometimes the best thing you can do is walk away before you FUBAR it. Come back with some sleep and a clean fresh mind to attack the problem.

 

This is a cake walk for an easy out. Don't rush the extraction. Next time, thread the screw in by hand before the 1 ugga lol.

If you have a tap and die kit, rethread the hole and you should be good.

 

I believe those are ss bolts, very hard.

 

The poor easy-out didn’t hardly make a scratch in the broken bolt. I ended up burning through a couple titanium bits with a hammer drill just to make the atrocious 1mm divot in the picture above.

 

Drop a tack of weld on it? Then it's someone else's problem in 20 years!

 

If it's not cross threaded then weld a nut to it and it will come right out. Do it all the time with broken exhaust manifold bolts it cylinder heads.

 

The only thing I can think went wrong is that the bolt was pre-coated in loctite and the welded-on threads on the truck were probably pretty rusty after sitting for a few years empty (it looked rusty before I started, should’ve hit it with pb blaster). I got like 75% of the way threaded in before it broke, so I’ll be impressed if anything could get it back out.

 

let us know if / how you end up fixing this?