[steamship]

The offending article is item #33 in the attached image. It is the bolt that holds in the flanged shaft that the propshaft attaches to. This needs removing so that the infamous rear output shaft seal can be replaced (#31). The bolt in question is supposed to be torqued to a measly 25Nm.

I snapped a brand new T40 torx and wasn't even applying that much pressure. The snapped off section was stuck in the head of the torx and refused to come out, despite using little picks and various other items to try and shift it. Tried magnets, Araldite (overnight) and even something called Chemical Metal (overnight) to try and get a square head screwdriver to stick to it, but all were useless.

MJ suggested tungsten carbide burrs to drill the broken bit out which worked. Then had to hammer in a larger bit and then had a young lad with more strength and a breaker bar try to get the bolt out, but all we could manage was to strip the bolt more. Had decided to give up at that point and just live with the issue, and on my way to get some CV joint grease, thought about using a screw/bolt extractor (in the original photo), and on the way home considered freezing the bolt, despite the numerous times I'd read online about heating them. A quick trip to Screwfix and got some Arctic Products Crack-it. Followed the instructions on the can and after about 15 minutes the bolt broke free. Initially thought that the head had just snapped off with the pressure applied, but thankfully it was okay. As can be seen in the original photo, there was no signs of thread lock being used or it being cross threaded, so can only put it down to the enthusiastic 'mechanic' (and I use that term in it's loosest sense) who replaced it for me about six years ago.

Excluding the cost of the CV joint grease and the seal which I had to buy anyway, it cost about £41 in parts (Chemical Metal - £12, Burr set - £14, Screw/Bolt extractor set - £6 and Crack-it - £9), and all that for an issue with a £4 bolt.