Paging those good with rounded bolts - advice needed.

First thing I always try if the head's not completely rounded is
grinding paste. Slap some on the head & use a 6-sided socket.

 

Work of the devil, those barstewards

 

Yeah following up on you and Andy, if it is going to come out, rather than
shear, then a soaking in release fluid followed by a tap with a cold chisel
should do it.
If it doesn't move then get radical on it's arse rather than shear off the
head. It's never that much trouble to centre punch the head and drill out
the core, which often lets the thread release, then tap it again.

 

Works well on a sump plug with a large hex and reasonable access.
Possibly trickier when the head is sunk in to finning as in this case.
I had to get one of the notoriously nasty OEM Morini plugs out by the
method once, but enough access was gained by simply leaning the bike
against the garage wall suitably padded and at a radical angle.

--
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Aprilia Shiver Yamaha WR250Z/Supermoto "Old Gimmer's Hillclimber" |
| Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+

 

I'd have thought that by now, everyone who fettled had a set of wither
Draper/Snap-On or Irwin sockets. They're better than the dog's bollocks.

 

I agree, but.... if something *has* to come off and you've tried a raft of
other tools, the Irwin's are simply another (very good) option to choose.
The fact that they're good enough to grip so well that sufficient force
applied by the breaker bar/ratchet/impact driver could snap a bolt isn't the
fault of the tool, it's the fault of the tool using the tool.

And as everyone knows, it's a poor workman who blames his tools.

 

On the follow up thread I wrote exactly the same, but then I thought I'd
have a look at this original thread on the subject. No point saying it
twice, although i doea stand the odd repeat.

 

Nope. Allen bolts have parallel sides and any taper to the tool would force
them out of the bolt head.

 

Probably several degrees further than you've ever managed on the
road....

 

Pfft. Even adding the postage, that set works out at about 13 dorra a
piece, or something less than a tenner. Cheaper than Snap-On sockets,
that is.

I remember wincing when buying a Sykes Pickavant set of oil drain plug
extractors inna tin box. Odd things, milled from 17mm hex stock (so
you can get a 17mm deep socket or choice of spanner on the middle of
the body) with a variety of square, hex and just odd pegs and sockets
on the end. It was a six-piece set, each one double-ended and it cost
about 20 quid in <guesses> 1980. Expensive at the time, but it is
still intact, I've used most of the ends at some time, frequently for
other than oil drain plugs and they've never failed.

So: 12 items, guaranteed to be effective, for let's say two pounds
each. Divide that by 30 (years) and then by 100 (uses, total) and all
of a sudden they've cost me less than a gnat's cock for each use, and
they've got me out of pretty desperate trouble several times. That's
alternately cheap ... and priceless.

 

***DING***

There's the agony of failure, the agony of embarrassment and begging
somebody to fix up your fuckup, the agony of waiting for it to be done,
then the agony of paying for it.

Might as well pay thirty quid for the tool in the first place, do the
job - then be delighted when it works a second time. 30 years later
and fifty uses gone by and you're so far into profit you might as well
buy a round.

Pullers, good circlip pliers and long-reach spline bits come to mind,
as did the oil drain plug adaptors I mentioned in my other post. All
bottom drawer stuff, all ready to spring into action when the going
gets tougher than normal.

 

"Double-bent cold chisel". Really - they're designed for raking mortar
out of brickwork joints while leaving space for fingers to grip 'em.

Of leaning bikes: I recall doing a wiggly job under a bike by digging a
hole on the grass and letting the sidestand sink in by three or four
inches. Well dodgy ;-)

 

<indicates saucer of milk>

 

Agree with the first two, but I've no idea what a spline bit is,
long-reach or otherwise. As it appears I've never needed one, they
can't be that important. Which of course guarantees I'll need one this
weekend, although I won't know that's what I need, cos like I said, I
don't know what they are.

 

If it's what I suspect it is, it's a tool with splines at one end exactly
like there is on the end of a shaft drive's shaft and a pocket for a 1/2 or
3/8 T-bar or ratshit on the other.

Long reach for jobs like removing cylinder heads from Mk 1 Golf's (and
various other motors) where the bolts are inaccessible with a normal
spline-drive.. A godsend as they defy attempts to rip them to shreds. I've
got one in my box from the early 70's and it's called on regularly. Worth
every penny of the horrendous sum it cost me, even though I can't remember
what that sum was. I do remember thinking "**** me, expensive" though.

You do now.

 

Isn't that a torx?

 

Can't be - Beav said it was expensive and everyone knows that torx
cheap.

 

<groan>

 

That might still be neccessary to get a good enough swing at it with the
hammer.

 

Ding.
First one I bought was for umm... head bolts on a Pinto and that saw
regular use for a couple of years. I now have a complete set of them (by
Draper or somesuch, iirc) but that original one is Snap-On and paid for
itself many times over.