DISA stripped bolt

Originally Posted by RayPooley

Ok. I'm back.

What you need is a center punch (on the left) and a 3mm screw extractor, in the middle. That's its family on the right. You also need a 2mm metal drill ie: for drilling metal not wood. I haven't got one but you know what it looks like.

Here's what you do. You take the punch, which is hardened steel, and place the pointy end in the MIDDLE of the head. You then tap the punch firmly a few times with a hammer until it has left a significant dent in the head of the screw. About 2mm diameter. This dent is going to stop the 2mm drill from skidding when you first start to drill a hole in the screw. Ok? Its like a pilot dent. This is the important bit. Ideally you want to drill down teh center of the screw. That's the objective. You don't want to knacker the threads/hole in the manifold. So be ultra careful.

Once you have a satisfactory pilot dent, put your drill into your dremel, position the tip of the drill in the pilot hole and start drilling. MAKE SURE YOU KEEP THE DRILL IN LINE WITH THE AXIS OF THE SCREW. Be patient. Baby steps. Take your time. Drill about 5mm in, withdraw the drill until it is almost out (to remove swarf from teh flutes) and go back in again. Do this until you have drilled to a depth of about 10mm.

This is where the screw extractor comes into play. The screw extractor is a case hardened tool. The tapered bit on the end has a LEFT HANDED cutting thread. You insert this into your screw and start to screw it into the drilled hole as you would a left handed screw. ie: applying pressure and turning COUNTER CLOCKWISE. As the extractor penetrates the screw it will eventually get tighter and tighter until, instead of the extractor getting any tighter, the knackered screw will start to unscrew. Get it? Job done. But DO be patient. And put something in the engine bay so as to catch anything that you might drop. Always a good idea. Oh yeah. Get yourself a T40 torx bit.

Yup, thats what I tried to do. Have all the tools(including the extractor and drill bits) and tried the process you described. But to keep the Drill bit along the axis of the screw is impossible because of the size of the Drill I have. I have a cordless black and decker 12V drill. The little metal partition between the strut tower and DME gives me no room at all to have the drill straight.

May be I need to get a smaller drill to clear the metal barrier between the strut tower and DME fuse box.

Also I do have T40, but at that time something made me use T30 Small mistake cost me so much frustration.

Originally Posted by trj

Yup, thats what I tried to do. Have all the tools(including the extractor and drill bits) and tried the process you described. But to keep the Drill bit along the axis of the screw is impossible because of the size of the Drill I have. I have a cordless black and decker 12V drill. The little metal partition between the strut tower and DME gives me no room at all to have the drill straight.

May be I need to get a smaller drill to clear the metal barrier between the strut tower and DME fuse box.

Also I do have T40, but at that time something made me use T30 Small mistake cost me so much frustration.

Borrow a dremel? Even an electric screw driver would do. You don't need high revs for a 2mm drill bit.

Originally Posted by RayPooley

Borrow a dremel? Even an electric screw driver would do. You don't need high revs for a 2mm drill bit.

Yah, I think I will borrow or buy a smaller one. I will check if the local auto stores will rent me one. Already have a cordless dremel and drill, both with variable speed with reverse capabilty. But the dremel tool I have is not 90 degree and the drill is too big to fit there straight.

Originally Posted by trj

Yah, I think I will borrow or buy a smaller one. I will check if the local auto stores will rent me one. Already have a cordless dremel and drill, both with variable speed with reverse capabilty. But the dremel tool I have is not 90 degree and the drill is too big to fit there straight.

Here's a thought. What if you thoroughly degreased the head of the screw and used an epoxy resin bonding agent to bond another screw, or something, to it? The problem really is access (it is the bottom screw isn't it. The top one is a doddle). You only have to back it of a turn I reckon and it will free up.

Originally Posted by RayPooley

Here's a thought. What if you thoroughly degreased the head of the screw and used an epoxy resin bonding agent to bond another screw, or something, to it? The problem really is access (it is the bottom screw isn't it. The top one is a doddle). You only have to back it of a turn I reckon and it will free up.

Its the top screw, bottom one would have been a nightmare. Yah, I thought of epoxy but I am not sure if there is enough even surface on the existing bolt after all my adventures with the dremel.

This weekend I am going to try with the grinding tool to completely grind away the bolt and see if it works out.

Originally Posted by trj

Its the top screw, bottom one would have been a nightmare. Yah, I thought of epoxy but I am not sure if there is enough even surface on the existing bolt after all my adventures with the dremel.

This weekend I am going to try with the grinding tool to completely grind away the bolt and see if it works out.

You surprise me. When I took my DISA out the bottom one was a bitch. I had a dremel and one of the tools is a conical grinder like teh one on the top right in this link.

http://www.dremel-direct.com/acatalo...FbMbtAod0BwAkw

Maybe something like that, and a lot of patience, could get the head off. Another thing. What about using the center punch to try and turn it. Position the punch on the edge, at an angle, and tap away.

Originally Posted by RayPooley

You surprise me. When I took my DISA out the bottom one was a bitch. I had a dremel and one of the tools is a conical grinder like teh one on the top right in this link.

http://www.dremel-direct.com/acatalo...FbMbtAod0BwAkw

Maybe something like that, and a lot of patience, could get the head off. Another thing. What about using the center punch to try and turn it. Position the punch on the edge, at an angle, and tap away.

Thanks for the link man. I actually just bought a conical grinding tool. I will be trying to give it a go tomorrow. Center punch and anything else is out of the question. I tried everything, trust me. lol.

Just to give you a picture of what I tried and how mangled the screw head is, here are couple of pictures from the phone I took just now. I know they are blurry but you get the picture.