A neighbor stopped by asking for help in cleaning his air cleaner filter out. He must have red loctited or over torqued the 3 star bolts because they wouldnt budge and he stripped the star bolt pattern out.

I suggesting maybe trying a drill with reverse and a left handed bit but he didnt have any.

Anyone have any other suggestions on removing them bolts?

Also do you know off the top of your head what size star bolts they are?
Thanks for your feedback.

 

May have to use a drill with a larger bit to drill off the heads of the bolts, or use a grinder to grind them down so you can get the air cleaner off, then use vice grips to remove them.

Dont know what size they are.

 

Dremel a thin straight line across the face of the screw and then use a large screw driver, or drill them and use the easy out.

 

If I remember correctly the air cleaner bolts stick out a little and are not flush mounted in the filter. Use a pair of locking vice-grips and lock them onto the head of the bolt as tightly as possible, then use the vice-grip to break them free. It is easier if you clamp it on from the side and not straight on, if that makes sense.

 

Can either use the dremel method people are suggesting or a drill with easy outs.

 

Go buy him one of those Fisher-Price plastic tool kits (the one for ages 4-up). Have him practice on that for a while, before he gets anywhere close to working on his own bike again.

 

Hahah

Look i know im not the greatest, but red loctite on breather screws is insane. Not sure why anyone would think red of all loctites is good there.

 

lol thats funny. No, I dont know for certain he loctited them bolts. It felt like it. He stripped 2 bolts and broke the T27 starbit trying to break them free. I was able to get one loose but the others were stripped so bad nothing would catch or budge them. Gotta be in there tight if it bent and broke the starbit.

He tried tapping a flat blade screw driver into the stripped head of bolt and was able to get a groove but couldnt turn the screw driver. My grip still aint good since I had the chemo treatments so I tried using a wrench on screw driver to get a better grip and I couldnt budge it.

Will try the drill and ez out next and see if that works. Hopefully it does. Thanks for the feedback and the laughs.

 

LOL thanks for todays laugh!!!

 

I've used a heat gun to warm stuff up that won't release, also have used freeze and release spray to chill stuff...two safe methods to apply heat/cold that can help release fasteners. I also have some special vise grips (goggle image "vise grip locking wrench") that look like a parrot jaw; man, they grip good! I cope with seized fasteners at work quite a bit...