I was installing a water pump yesterday morning and everything was going excellent. I had smoothly removed all the belts, then removed the water pump, swiftly cleaned all the old gasket material, installed the new seals and pump. While tightening the last bolt on the water pump I decided to give it an extra ¼ turn when the stud broke and the fell into the bottom of the timing belt cover, bummer! After a lot of swearing, I managed to get the broken stud removed. I reinstalled the pump this moring but was still unable to extract the broken bolt and nut from the timing cover. Is there a trick for this? I do not have a harmonic balancer removal tool but will be ordering one this week.

Try a small washer shaped magnet ( they used to sell them at radio shack) tied to a piece of fishing line, you can feed that down and bounce it around untill it hooks up

The washer tied to dental floss was my initial idea but because of all the metal surrounding the gears I couldn't get the magnet past a certain point, hence posting the message to the board. After trying everything everyone suggested out of desperation (and pending sunset) I reverted to the circular magnet again (left over from the steering pump metal collection plan) low and behold after about 15 to 20 tries the magnet emerged with the broken stud and bolt. Yipee!

Now for that stripped bolt hole.

Stick the damned magnet to the timing belt with masking tape and crank the engine over using a big socket on the front pulley.

The next time the magnet comes around, it might have a friend tagging along...

If it feels like the magnet is jamming against something, turn the crank the other way.

Remove the spark plugs first so you don't have to crank against compression and so you have a better "feel"...
--
Don Foster (near Cape Cod, MA)

I feel for you, we have all had things like that happen. I wonder if it is possible to remove the bolts and separate the lower front cover from the rear (with the harmonic balance pulley in place) and pry it apart far enough to let the offending nut fall out.

I do not use any special tool to undo the bolt on the harm. bal. pulley. I apply the rope trick technique. It is well documented in the archives and maybe even the 700/900 FAQ section.

You could try using one of those flexible magnet tools from Harbor Freight.