Screw this

[ShirleySerious]

Anyone else having trouble removing most of the screws on their bike? Mine are like made of pewter or something and besides all being rusted in, the heads strip with almost no effort.

I say this because I'm trying to remove the gearbox cover to change my clutch cable. I was able to remove all but one screw, whose head stripped the moment I put a screwdriver in there. I tried using a screw extractor until the battery on my drill died. The cover is not at an angle where I can just twist it and prying it off is out of the question.

As a last resort I found a drill bit that's expendable and superglued it into the hole made by the screw extractor. By the time it dries, the battery will hopefully be charged up (BTW, why does it take 18 hours to charge a little battery??). If that fails, I'm the one that's screwed. I can feel the clutch cable starting to give.

[earlfor]

I will guess you are referring to the phillips head screws. Yeah, they're soft metal. By FAR the best way to remove them and easiest is to use a hammer driven impact wrench with a #2 phillips bit. If you have buggered the head with a normal screwdriver, you can get one more chance by taking a small hammer and flattening the head. Then, with a bare, new phillips bit held in place on the screw, hammer it down solidly. It will "cut" a new phillips slot. You can only do this once though, as I say, one more chance is all ya get. :-) An impact driver is usually $10 or so and well worth it.
You wont believe you ever got along without one.

Usually, for a screw extractor, you need to use a wrench. A drill turns too fast and you dont have any feedback of how well it is gripping, so strip city again. :-)

E.

Anyone else having trouble removing most of the screws on their bike? Mine are like made of pewter or something and besides all being rusted in, the heads strip with almost no effort.

I say this because I'm trying to remove the gearbox cover to change my clutch cable. I was able to remove all but one screw, whose head stripped the moment I put a screwdriver in there. I tried using a screw extractor until the battery on my drill died. The cover is not at an angle where I can just twist it and prying it off is out of the question.

As a last resort I found a drill bit that's expendable and superglued it into the hole made by the screw extractor. By the time it dries, the battery will hopefully be charged up (BTW, why does it take 18 hours to charge a little battery??). If that fails, I'm the one that's screwed. I can feel the clutch cable starting to give.

[psyguy]

i have recently rebuilt a gs850
all bolts came out all too easy
the problem was that they would not really hold properly
so i had to heli-coil most of them
close to a hundred... \\/

[ShirleySerious]

It might be a little too late to make a new Phillips head on the screw. The instructions told me to burnish a hole in the screw about 1/16" deep with a drill, which is what I did. I wish I had known about the hammer trick before hand. It might be a little too deep, but I may be able to salvage it.

[mark]

Some of mine wouldn't budge with the impact wrench, but that would be your first choice.

I ended up drilling off the screws heads of the super stubborn ones with a drill bit slightly large than the thread size and taking a vice grips to the shafts after the cover was off. Soaked them in penetrating oil first as well. If you're gentle with the drill, the heads pop right off with basically zero damage to the cover.

There are stainless steel allen head bolt kits for most bikes to replace those pesky phillips head screws. Not that expensive and well worth it from my point of view.

[earlfor]

Thought I would add a comment about the impact drivers. If youre gonna use one, hold it down hard into the screw head and when you strike the end of the impact tool with the hammer. HIT IT with authority. Tentative taps will do nothing except cause the bit to ride out of the screw head and strip it.

E.

It might be a little too late to make a new Phillips head on the screw. The instructions told me to burnish a hole in the screw about 1/16" deep with a drill, which is what I did. I wish I had known about the hammer trick before hand. It might be a little too deep, but I may be able to salvage it.

[chef1366]

Thought I would add a comment about the impact drivers. If youre gonna use one, hold it down hard into the screw head and when you strike the end of the impact tool with the hammer. HIT IT with authority. Tentative taps will do nothing except cause the bit to ride out of the screw head and strip it.

E.

Aka beat the crap out of it. Grip the end of the hammer to use its weight as additional force.

P.S. Don't call me Shirley.

[ShirleySerious]

I googled impact wrench, since I don't know what they are and it looks like manually powered ones still have to fit in the head of the screw. That won't do me much good, since there is no semblance of a phillips head, just a 1/16" hole with no grip for any kind of wrench.

I would follow your advice, mark, except I don't have vice grips, nor will the cover come off, which is the problem I'm having in the first place. I tried spraying WD-40 on the outside of the screw, probably because I misunderstand the name penetrating oil, thinking that it will seep into the threads.

[argonsagas]

Anyone else having trouble removing most of the screws on their bike? Mine are like made of pewter or something and besides all being rusted in, the heads strip with almost no effort.

I say this because I'm trying to remove the gearbox cover to change my clutch cable. I was able to remove all but one screw, whose head stripped the moment I put a screwdriver in there. I tried using a screw extractor until the battery on my drill died. The cover is not at an angle where I can just twist it and prying it off is out of the question.

As a last resort I found a drill bit that's expendable and superglued it into the hole made by the screw extractor. By the time it dries, the battery will hopefully be charged up (BTW, why does it take 18 hours to charge a little battery??). If that fails, I'm the one that's screwed. I can feel the clutch cable starting to give.

I am not certain what bike you have but in my experience both ends of the clutch cables have all fastened externally. I have not yet seen a bike that required you to remove the gearbox cover to change a clutch cable.

Do you have a really unusual model, or am I missing something?

[earlfor]

OK then assuming you still have a head on the screw, take a bare hacksaw
blade and cut on the pull stroke only, holding the blade between your thumb and finger. You want to cut a slot that you can insert a standard bladed screwdriver into. That should get you outta trouble.

E. :-)


[quote=ShirleySerious;634485]I googled impact wrench, since I don't know what they are and it looks like manually powered ones still have to fit in the head of the screw. That won't do me much good, since there is no semblance of a phillips head, just a 1/16" hole with no grip for any kind of wrench.

[JohnnyV]

Ive used a dremel with a cut off wheel to make a slot too. You can pick up an imact driver at one of those cheap tool sales. think mine was from homier for 5 or 10 bucks.

[quote=earlfor;634488]OK then assuming you still have a head on the screw, take a bare hacksaw
blade and cut on the pull stroke only, holding the blade between your thumb and finger. You want to cut a slot that you can insert a standard bladed screwdriver into. That should get you outta trouble.

E. :-)

I googled impact wrench, since I don't know what they are and it looks like manually powered ones still have to fit in the head of the screw. That won't do me much good, since there is no semblance of a phillips head, just a 1/16" hole with no grip for any kind of wrench.

[ShirleySerious]

I think pictures will help explain my dilemma.




The first 3 pictures show the screw involved. You can see the drill bit sticking out of it. To give you a good idea as to what the head looks like, look at the circled area in the 4th picture. The affected screw is worse.


argonsagas, My bike is a '78 GS550E. I haven't had the opportunity to look at too many GS's but there's definitely a cover to remove.

earlfor, I can only hope a hacksaw will fit into a spot that tight.

[Reddawg]

shirley. don't bother with a impact driver. you've already drilled your screw u have to get an easy out to remove the screw. My advice is to get the correct size e z out and before using it use a punch of some sort to smack the head of the screw, soak it with penatrating oil, and then smack it again. Then use the ez out. Good luck, cuz if that don't work it's drillin and helicoil.

[Reddawg]

I may have spoken too soon. A dremel might work. If there is enough clearance to get in there for the standard screwdriver. If that works u could use a impact driver. If it won't fit u could try drilling the head off and vice gripping the screw shank out. I still think u need to smack and soak and smack it to get it out. Just a suggestion.

[ShirleySerious]

Damn, so many conflicting ways to remove it. I heard on a site that you could weld a washer to the head, but, uhh, no. I just hope super glue will hold that drill bit in there. Riding it anywhere to get it looked at is a big negative because I'm not having the clutch cable snap 5 miles from home.