Back in the garage

Finally! A couple of days with Michelle out of town and no crisis to be dealt with. I had PECO in Albuquerque make me up a couple of new hoses for the power steering, hoping to jump into that project. After getting under the car for the first time since this summer, I suddenly remembered the exhaust pipe to manifold bolt on the driver's side that was sheared off when we swapped engines. Since the steering rack is out, now is the perfect time to deal with that problem, since there is little access when the rack is in. Of course, this would be the one bolt (of three) that it would be impossible to just put a nut on the back of due to the body of the manifold. Initially, I hoped to use an extractor on the problem, so I drilled a 5/16" hole in the nub of the bolt still sticking out and tried the extractor. You can guess the result: the nub sheared down to flush with the manifold. No problem, drill another hole and try again. I treated the threads with penetrating oil and let it sit awhile, drilled a deeper hole to try again...and chickened out when the torque got excessive. I've broken extractors off before, but never in such an inconvenient place, so I decided to drop back and punt rather than risk having to drill through a broken hardened steel extractor. Borrowed a 5/16" x 24 tap from Bob, drilled a 9/32" hole and tapped new threads. Worked like a charm, for once caution paid off. I can move on to the power steering tomorrow.