The torx bolts on my derby cover are giving me major grief. One out, the rest seem to be so tight they are stripping. I changed them out last season with one bolt almost stripping but I managed.

I've spent the afternoon jerking around with a bolt extractor which seems to be making matters worse. It's just spinning and not actually drilling.

Have I got the wrong extractor, or does someone have a another solution?

Help appreciated.

 

I had the same problem when pulling the bolts out of the derby cover of my Street Glide. I had one bolt left that would not come out. I didn't have an extractor, so I went to a neighbor for some help. He had a decent extractor that drilled out the bolt head. By the time we got it out, you could see daylight through the bolt head when you looked through it. One thing he did was to use a socket wrench to try and turn the bolt. By doing this you could vary the pressure and torque. It worked, and the bit grabbed and finally the bolt came out. Since then I have gone and bought a "grabbit" brand extractor although I have not had to use it yet. (fingers crossed) So if you haven't already try pulling the bolt using a hand tool instead of with the drill. Good luck.

 

Depending on how much patience you have and how long the shaft of the screw is...you could always drill the head off the screw. Once you do this to all screws, remove the cover, and grab the shaft of the screw with a good set of vise grips and work em out.


Not the easiest thing to do by any means. But its an alternative to using the extractor if its failing.

 

Might be time to use the BFH!

 

Are you using a torque wrench when you install the bolts? They should never be that hard to get out, nor should stripping them be an issue installing them. They don't need to be that tight. If it leaks and that is why you are cranking down on the bolts, you may need to replace your derby cover. If an easy out isn't working, you will probably have to go FatBoyVeteran's method. It takes some finess with the drill and easy out. I like the square ones if you can find one.

 

FatBoyVeteran, great advice.
I replaced the torx zinc looking stock bolts with polished stainless allen head bolts and washers I got from Ace Hardware.

 

Just reread your post, the bolt is spinning with the drill when you try and drill it? If so that is bad, as the bolt is stripped in the primary cover. First you may want to see if anyone has a better idea. Best case senerio is if you have a compentent machinist buddy, call him now and buy some beer. In absence of that, move on to the next stripped screw and try and get it out or as many as you can. You are eventually going to have to try and get some back pressure on the stripped screws and maybe you can get enough pressure they will catch and back out. If you can find a dental bur, you can use those to grind the torx head into pieces an get the cover off. They are delicate and can require some finess. There are some other things you can try out of desperation, (like trying to stake the screw to keep it from spinning while drilling or chiseling the torx head with a very small chisel from the middle out like tiny pieces of pie) but will likely trash your derby cover and possibly your primary cover. It sounds like you may be in trouble anyway. If you have stripped the threads on the primary cover, there may be some things you can do--oversize and retap the holes, helicoil, thread insert of some kind...all kinda half assed given the price of a new primary cover. You may want to start mentally preparing yourself for the purchase of a new primary cover, a manual and a torque wrench if you don't have those items. Good luck, I am feeling bad for ya brother.

 

If it is just the head of the bolt you stripped out try cutting a straight line across the middle of the bolt head.With a dremel or something.Then use a flat blade screw driver to remove it. This works most of the time. But it all depends on how bad of a job you did on the head. It sounds like there may not be enough of it left to use this method. Good Luck

 

Please clarify this statement... are you trying to drill a hole with the bolt extractor?

 

Try taking the outer primary cover off and see if the threads stick into the case enough to grab them with a pair of pliers and start to turn them back out from the inside . Just a tip. When I put my Derby Cover back on I use a Torx screwdriver. That way I can't over-tighten the bolts. those bolts being small do not require much torque. Doing it this way I haven't had that happen in 31 years. Just hope to help.