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Danm the process. I broke a 14MM bolt reinstalling the tranny on the Miata tonight. Upper passenger side (#2 on my numbering system), holds the bracket for the clutch line and some wiring. I had the torque wench on it and didn't exceed 50 ft#'s so I was really surprised. What now? I'm probably going to pretend that it didn't happen. Am I stupid to leave it as is? There are bolts right above and below it and with ten other bolts holding the tranny on I don't think it's going to fall off. It's gonna be a batch to pull it all apart and snag the rest of the bolt out, and I don't see any way to do that without dropping the tranny again. At this point it's all reinstalled and torqued, so it'll be like starting over.

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Colin O'Connell

'94 BMW NASA SPEC 3
'02 F350 tow vehicle (not bad for a tow vehicle)
'97 Miata STO (autoX and sunny day spoils vehicle)
'97 BMW 328i (loaner to the kids when their cars don't work vehicle)
'05 Toyota Highlander

Geez, that really sucks. Thats like a worst case scenario. Those bolts are rather hard to get to. Dropping the tranny all the way back out would be the only way I can imagine. I wouldn't highly reccomend it, but you *might* be alright just leaving it in there broken as it is. The worst thing I could possibly imagine happening is you ending up with a craked bell housing on the tranny if this somehow compromises the engine/tranny interface integrity. But this is probably very unlikely. One other thing I would consider since this bolt holds the bracket with the cluth line, maybe replacing the clutch line with a stainless braided one that would be more happy with flexing. And zip tie the wires on that bracket somewhere securely and out of the way of any danger from being cut from vibrations. Of course the real correct answer is to drop the tranny and fix the bolt...

Did you simply shear the head off or are there threads on the partial bolt?

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Has no responsibility whatsoever.

snapped about half way down the bolt so there's threads on the part that came out. It slid out after it snapped so it broke at the mating surface of the transmission.

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Colin O'Connell

'94 BMW NASA SPEC 3
'02 F350 tow vehicle (not bad for a tow vehicle)
'97 Miata STO (autoX and sunny day spoils vehicle)
'97 BMW 328i (loaner to the kids when their cars don't work vehicle)
'05 Toyota Highlander

Just thought I would mention it as nobody has yet....

It could very well be a defective bolt that caused this, but you may want to have your torque wrench checked to make sure it is accurate as well as verify that your torquing (is that a word?) technique is good. You don’t want to solve this problem and then break another bolt because of accidental over torque.

Good luck on figuring this out.

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Richard Casto
1972 Porsche 914
2013 Honda Fit Sport
2015 Honda Fit EX
http://motorsport.zyyz.com
Money can't buy happiness, but somehow it's more comfortable to cry in a Porsche than a Kia.

Run it.
If the other bolts are seated properly, I don't believe you'll have any problems. Fix the clutch line and secure the wiring.

I can't see any way to get to it short of pulling the ENGINE. There is very little clearance between that bolt and the firewall. Even by removing the tranny, how you gonna get to the bolt if it's broken off at the mating surface?

Only other way might be to create a hole through the firewall at the position where the bolt is, and then go after it with a drill and easy-out. Depends on access under the dash, but might be worth look into. You can plug the hole afterwards if the butcher job works!

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Brad

Cars are overengineered for a reason. This bolt is exhibit A.

Just don't ask how many times I've had to supply cars with Ace Hardware hardware. It's still 10,9

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Has no responsibility whatsoever.