'Tell us about your worst bolt snap experience (your fault) and how dear did it cost you ? ...your job ? '

[Petrol Pete]

I'll go first.

In a previous life technicians from all over the world would be sent our way to gain practical experience on certain bespoke machinery , I ran the service schedule on the site of our biggest and most important customer , as a result we had a team of guys (rotating) pretty much on site servicing production lines 7 days a week .

Think 'painting the fourth road bridge' scenario.

On this occasion we were lumbered with a pair of Russian blokes who didn't speak English , and quite frankly were only here for the beer (Vodka) and were not showing much interest in learning from us.

Long story short, I tasked them to remove a hardened locating pin (10mm) which become 'chemically bonded' to the Aluminium solid frame of the main machine , it was in an awkward position , and as I had done the job once before I knew it would keep them out of my hair for at least the rest of the day.

Imagine my surprise when ten minutes later they presented me with the removed locating pin in hand !

Well , half of it , the other half remained well and truly 'welded' into the machine frame after they had cut it off perfectly flush with a slitting disc !! .

Getting it out added almost 24hours to the production line downtime and forced a re design of the machine frame , so all was not lost.

Technically not my fault , but I took the blame . Lost in translation I guess.

 

[tony gee]

as a mechanic for nearly 40 years ive had my fair share of snapped rusty old bolts !!!! some ive snapped and some customers have. probably the worst was on a bike, it came in for a new exhaust system but 4 of the 8 header bolts snapped they where well seized and where never coming out, 3 of them i could get to with a drill but one was almost behind the frame down tube so no access, the customer was expecting that anyway, I had 2 choices 1 take the head off or 2 take the engine out, it made more sense to pull the engine as no extra parts would be needed like gaskets and seals.
I did warn the customer this could happen but he said go ahead anyway. a few more hours labour added to his bill

 

[SpikyMikey]

Not a bolt or stud, but I did manage to snap off a M4 tap whilst re-tapping a hole in an important bit of kit once.
Have you ever tried drilling out a broken tap? I managed to turn 2 cobalt drill bits into centre punches before I was successful.

 

[tony gee]

Not a bolt or stud, but I did manage to snap off a M4 tap whilst re-tapping a hole in an important bit of kit once.
Have you ever tried drilling out a broken tap? I managed to turn 2 cobalt drill bits into centre punches before I was successful.

yep done that I now go very slowly with M6 and smaller taps now.

 

[Ted]

Not a vehicle but…
Around 1987 I was sent out to l’Aquila in Italy to resolve an issue with a computer system, in some place that had armed guards, that was corrupting the database.
One of the Italian engineers drove me down from Milan.
Easy enough job really. Replaced the disk controller firmware as it was an early version and prone to errors, and decided to replace the main psu because there were rumours of interference.
Old one came out, and as the Italian guy screwed one of the connectors in, it broke. He looked at me as if to say ‘what are we going to do about this?’
Night time, god knows where, no real spares.
Took the power supply back out and JUST managed to get what was left of the screw out. Rebuilt it using one of the screws from the old psu, but it was a buttock clenching moment.
Just to complete the story, the system manager was an attractive Italian lady. I asked the guy with me to ask her if she wanted to come to dinner with us. She went red, looked down, said something in Italian and they both laughed. It turns out that she couldn’t as she had choir practice at the church that evening (or so she said!)