Spent the weekend working on the stripped clutch bolts. I’m in an area that I don’t really know much about. How the clutch works in general makes sense to me but working with seized bolts is something new.
So what I’m dealing with is two stripped heads and some bolts that won’t move at all. After conquering my fear, I decided to drill out the bolts. I realized if I couldn’t get the bolts out the motor was useless anyway. So in any case I was going to have to buy a new motor if I couldn’t get them out. That’s when I realized I had nothing to lose.
It’s times like this when I start to learn things about myself. I’m willing to take a chance if there’s just a slim possibility that I could be successful. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still a little fearful of trying this, but here goes.
So below are the drill bits that I used to drill these stripped clutch bolts out. I consistently kept spraying WD-40 so I wouldn’t burn up the bit.
After about an hour of drilling and spraying WD-40 and using my vice grips of shaking the screw I got the screw to move. You talk about needing some patience and feeling my heart pound. It was a sense of relief to know that I achieved something without completely destroying the screw holes.
I wasn’t concerned with damaging the clutch because I was going to replace it anyway. I did put some towels on it sometimes when I was using the vice grip. I was doing it more to protect the engine casing.
Once I got one of the bolts out my confidence went way up. It felt like there was a chance that I kind of new what I was doing – LOL. I learned that once you get the first bolt out, the clutch will just come a part and it makes it easier to get the second bolt out.
Be careful and don’t do what I did, I realized I drilled way to far and actually when into the motor casing a little bit. I believe that I hit the gasket but I’m going to see if the motor runs with no issue before deciding if I need to replace the gasket.
