Frank Stockmans

Hi,

I've ruined 1 of the 3 distributor rotor bolts and I'm looking now for the best solution to remove it. Left handed screw tap is an option but I'm not sure you can actually tap left thread in a hardened rotor bolt

Thanks, Frank

willardcpa

Use this at your own risk. But I will share a similar experience I had with one of the bolts that holds on the water pump on my 96 E320. Similar situation, bolt socket stripped out and no way to get to it with pliers, or even an "easy out" as it was tucked in underneath the water pump. Since I was replacing the water pump, and it was made out of aluminum, and the other three bolts were already out - I used a crowbar, inserted it into the top of the water pump and basically busted it off, leaving a slight shoulder remnant around the stripped bolt, which came off too as it did not completely surround the bolt. Now for the ironic part, with the pressure off of it the bolt now came out with my fingers - no wrench.
I'm assuming that you might have the same opportunity, you are probably replacing the rotor. Take the other two bolts our and basically break up the rotor until you've destroyed it and the errant bolt is left standing by itself.
Of course, not using enough force to cause other problems, but rotors are usually made of "bakelite" and are easily fractured.