Made a mess of removing stuck hugger bolt

GrahamWebb

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I bought an oem rear hugger off eBay for my 2010 GSA but found the old bolt well and truly seized into the housing on the final drive. I tried pliers and grips and cutting a slot and a screwdriver but nothing would budge it so took off the calliper and tried to drill it out from the back. Result a few broken drill bits and the hole drifting still leaving remnants of the old bolt in place.

Any ideas of how to fix this, was thinking I drill out larger and fill with jb weld and then drill and tap that. I have those aluminium repair rods but would be worried about using heat on part of the final drive. Maybe drill and tap larger and glue in a bolt and drill and tap that?


 
Are you trying to drill stainless, I see the caliper bolts have been replaced with stainless.

Sent from my SM-A226B using Tapatalk
 
I don't think it was stainless as the end of the bolt left sticking out was rusty but saying that it was bloody hard materiel my drill bits were having trouble.

The stainless calliper bolts were on the bike when I got it but they are ok.
 
I would not bother with jB weld, it will not hold, Tig welding in situ may well put too much heat into the final drive.
If the drilling has gone off centre it can be corrected by removing the rest of the bolt with a small diamond burr in a die grinder or Dremel.
These small diamond burs can be purchased from Lidle or Ebay (Cheap assorted box and come in handy).
After removing the remains of the thread drill out to 1/4 inch ( 6,35mm) and Helicoil M6 x 1 mm pitch.
 
I have machined oversize inserts when someone has made a real mess and it has not been viable to weld it up and re drill and tap .
My concern with these in your application would be that there is not enough material in the casting and if there was trying to force one of these in without tapping it first may well crack the casting.
 
you have drilled all the way through and its still stuck? suppose i would try some heat and one of those reverse screw extractor bits?
 
Had exactly the same problem- replaced the originals with stainless bolts cos they looked nice when new, then corroded solid.

Ended up taking the FD off and taking to a local engineering place for them to drill out properly. If they drill out slightly too big for the original size bolt to bite then use a thread insert kit to make sure you get a proper cut thread in there. Worked fine with mine.

Engineering places have the right kit to get these things out with minimal damage.
 
haydw said:
Had exactly the same problem- replaced the originals with stainless bolts cos they looked nice when new, then corroded solid.

Ended up taking the FD off and taking to a local engineering place for them to drill out properly. If they drill out slightly too big for the original size bolt to bite then use a thread insert kit to make sure you get a proper cut thread in there. Worked fine with mine.

Engineering places have the right kit to get these things out with minimal damage.
Click to expand...

Totally agree.
I like to get them before they have been attacked it makes life so much easier, The trouble is folk break stud extractors, drill bits or taps off in them and a simple job becomes a pain. :blast
Whip the final drive off, set it up on the Brigeport, index off four sides of the old bolt and drill it out. If it looks like it is going slightly off centre it can be pulled back in line with an end mill. :)
 
Yep I drilled a hole right through it and it didn't move. Went up to a 3mm bit and just as it was about to go through it broke. Then I tried with a bigger bit still and then made a mess of it. Must have been stainless.
 
This is a good example of why not to replace your bolts with stainless. Dissimilar metal corrosion. If you really want to put stainless fasteners all over your bike then use a very good jointing compound. In the few places that I have stainless fitted I use a Nickel based compound and I reapply it every service.
 
If it were my bike, looking at the second photo where you have managed to drill through the old seized fastener, I would remove the brake disk and use an Abrafile blade or a coarse grade of Jewellers saw blade and cut through the majority of the remaining fastener carefully by hand until its remains could be chased out with a centrepunch, then drill oversize and fit a thread insert using mazel metal to bond it in.
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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