Worn stem bolt

PJ83
PJ83 Posts: 24
edited July 2011 in Workshop
Hi all

I was trying to undo my stem last night with the intention of flipping it to give a bit more height to the front end but found one of the bolts has been completely rounded out (allen key fitament). Has anyone got any suggestions on ways to remove it? It's one of the two bolts which attaches the stem to the riser.

Thanks
John

Comments

  • Yossie
    Yossie Posts: 2,600
    Drill the top of the bolt out (takes 2 minutes) - the front piece of the stem will slide off over the remains of the bolt, the bolt will undo either by hand or with a pair of pliers as there is no tension on it. Throw remains of bolt into next door's garden. Simples.

    Remember to grease up new bolts and tourque into place properly.

    HTH

    Y
  • Monty Dog
    Monty Dog Posts: 20,614
    See if you can fit a slightly oversize Torx bit into the screw head, otherwise you'll need to resort to drills and screw extractors. You'll need a sharp drill and a steady hand, otherwise it'll snap or strip the thread and you'll be screwed.
    Make mine an Italian, with Campagnolo on the side..
  • Yossie
    Yossie Posts: 2,600
    Nah - so long as you are only drilling the head off you'll be fine- get a bit the same size as the head of the bolt, drill it off. The face plate will slide off, the remains of the bolt will be there and you'll be able to unscrew it easy doors.

    There are no threads on the face plate so nothing to jazz up, if you manage to drill all the way through the bolt to jazz up the threads in the stem then you're doing something really special and future use of tools should be restricted to sporks.

    if you're worried about it, don't try and drill the entire head off - take as much metal as you can out leaving a sliver around the edge - this will fold in with no effort as you take the face plate off.

    Then throw the whole lot into your next door neighbour's garden. If you jazz up the drill bit that can go as well.

    If its really rounded you can smack all the Torx heads you want in and it'll do nothing - it'll just spin and spin and round off even more.

    HTH

    Y
  • LangerDan
    LangerDan Posts: 6,132
    Yossie wrote:
    Nah - so long as you are only drilling the head off you'll be fine- get a bit the same size as the head of the bolt, drill it off. The face plate will slide off, the remains of the bolt will be there and you'll be able to unscrew it easy doors.

    There are no threads on the face plate so nothing to jazz up, if you manage to drill all the way through the bolt to jazz up the threads in the stem then you're doing something really special and future use of tools should be restricted to sporks.

    if you're worried about it, don't try and drill the entire head off - take as much metal as you can out leaving a sliver around the edge - this will fold in with no effort as you take the face plate off.

    Then throw the whole lot into your next door neighbour's garden. If you jazz up the drill bit that can go as well.

    If its really rounded you can smack all the Torx heads you want in and it'll do nothing - it'll just spin and spin and round off even more.

    HTH

    Y

    Its not the face plate bolts that are rounded - its the stem / steerer clamp bolts
    'This week I 'ave been mostly been climbing like Basso - Shirley Basso.'
  • Yossie
    Yossie Posts: 2,600
    Ahh - slightly trickier but no biggie - drill small hole through middle and use decent screw extractor - none of this Pound World tat.

    Alternatively, drill hole, tap in reverse thread using tap, screw in new bolt - because you have tapped in a reverse thread the new bolt will drag the old bolt out and there will also be less chance of a bolt snapping in there than a screw extractor (which do have a propensity to snap).

    Soak complete area in penetrating fluid first to ensure maximum chance of getting the bolt out. Also pop an allen bit in and smack it with a toffee hammer a few times beforehand - old trick to help break the seal on seized/difficult bolts

    Alternatvely, drill entire bolt and re-tap entire thread, but this is a bit of a major one and I'm not sure about structural intergrity etc.

    Or cut through screw using hacksaw blade only (it will fit through the gap that tightens up to clamp it to the stem), throw stem into next door's garden, buy new full carbon Zipp stem.

    Job jobbed.
  • topdude
    topdude Posts: 1,557
    The above advice is good but start with something simple,
    Find a torx bit that will be a tight fit in the bolt head.
    Tap it in with a hammer.
    Undo, job jobbed easily :D
    He is not the messiah, he is a very naughty boy !!