Date: Tue, 20 Jul 2004 21:18:11 -0700
Reply-To: Antaki <wrack@COMCAST.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Antaki <wrack@COMCAST.NET>
Subject: Re: Damn! Rounded over CV Joint Bolt!!!!
In-Reply-To: <000f01c46ed1$94b497a0$1302a8c0@comcast.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
I'm kind of surprised the Vice-Grip method has not worked for you. By
doing this as I state below, I have never been unable to remove one of
these bolts.
I would use medium sized Vice Grips with curved jaws, such as the model
7CR or 7WR if room is tight, or the 10CR or 10WR if room permits.
Clamp onto the head of the bolt with as tight a grip as you can possibly
muster. I end up adjusting it several times to the point where I just
cannot make it clamp any tighter.
To help with this, I would make sure that the Vice Grip was lubricated
on all friction points, except the jaws,of course. And I mean, Vice
Grips as made by Irwin, not any other iteration of this tool. I find
that there are certain tools where the original is the best, this is
one. See
http://www.irwin.com/irwin/consumer/jhtml/productDetail.jhtml?attributeI
d=BMATT1000103¤tType=BM1000005
You could assist the grip by grinding flats onto the head of the bolt
with a Dremel or equivalent.
In this case, using one of the 10" larger models on the flat part of the
jaw would be able to grip the flats you grind. You could clamp it so
tight it might squeeze some carbon out of the metal!
Wishing you success,
Ron A
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf
Of Tom Young
Sent: Tuesday, July 20, 2004 8:20 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Damn! Rounded over CV Joint Bolt!!!!
Hi all:
Removing CV bolts today, got over-confident and rounded out one of the
Allen-head bolts. Thank goodness it was on the trans side. Since I'm
going to remove the trans anyway I can just drill out the head of the
bolt and deal with the stub later. But, I'd kind of like to see if I
*can* get the bolt out properly.
I've seen suggestions to use vice-grips. Frankly, I've never had much
success with the vice-grip method and, given how tight these bolts are
seated, I'm not too optimistic about that method.
I've seen suggestions to use a 1/4" Allen-head socket and pound it into
the rounded-over head of the bolt. Since I'm going to re-use the CV
joints, and not disassemble them upon removal, I'm a little leery of the
"pound it in" method.
Has anybody tried carefully cutting a "slot" in the head, like the slot
in a screw head, and removing the bolt with an appropriate
"screwdriver?" (I have screwdriver-head sockets, so I can get good
leverage on the bolt that
way.) Just figure it's a logical thing to try, but maybe somebody else
had tried it, and can comment on how it works?
TIA.
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Tom Young '81 Vanagon
Lafayette, CA 94549 '82 Westfalia
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