Front rotor bolts

[SpikeC]

 One more tip- if you grind a hollow into the end of your allen it will dig into the base of the screw head instead of tending to cam out, and the impact of the tool will be more effective.

[Howie]

Allen sockets are a must have!

[krista]

Yes, one should never try rotor screws without the hand impact and proper sockets. A lot of the 2005+ bikes have a goofy Torx screw... even when done properly, those will either break the driver or the bolt head gets ruined. That's when you grind a slot across the top of the head and go back to hand+hammer impact with the straight bit on it.

[krista]

Oh, and I never ever put loctite on my rotor screws. I use grease. Why? Because I might change the rotors again and the next person to try after the loctite is screwed... been there, done that, have the t-shirt. I'm so glad I don't work on other peoples' bikes anymore; I'd loctite things because people on the internet say that you have to and then I'm the one screwed because I'm the next person to work on the bike.

[ducatiz]

Oh, and I never ever put loctite on my rotor screws. I use grease. Why? Because I might change the rotors again and the next person to try after the loctite is screwed... been there, done that, have the t-shirt. I'm so glad I don't work on other peoples' bikes anymore; I'd loctite things because people on the internet say that you have to and then I'm the one screwed because I'm the next person to work on the bike.

Antiseize is better than grease.  Does basically the same thing.

[ChrisK]

I'm revisiting this topic, have to take my rotors off to paint my wheels. The bolts absolutely WILL NOT budge. I've been using heat and PB blaster to try to get them to move but nothing. I will say that I haven't tried the hammer driver yet because I have to borrow one and haven't had a chance to.

I did get one of the bolts that was stuck to finally come free by absolute luck. The allan portion was completely rounded out, so I resorted to grinding a slit across the top of the bolt to try and get a flat head into it. That didn't work, but then I clamped a vice grips down onto the head of the bolt and it ended up working. I've tried to do that with other bolts but I'm not having any luck. The vice grips is just peeling metal off the head of the bolts. I don't know if it only worked on that one because it had that groove to grab onto.

Really frustrating. Any other ideas?

[Ddan]

The impact driver...   

[ChrisK]

I think there's a good chance the impact driver will work on a couple of the bolts, but I'm worried that the rest are stripped out enough that the bit will just spin...

[ducpainter]

I think there's a good chance the impact driver will work on a couple of the bolts, but I'm worried that the rest are stripped out enough that the bit will just spin...

If the allen head is rounded out use a torx bit tapped into the hole along with the impact driver.

Works every time.

[ChrisK]

Thanks DP, I'll give that a go tonight if these other methods don't work.

Also, I e-mailed you this morning about that tank.

[ChrisK]

I got a couple more to come loose tonight but I still have 4 left. I used heat, vice grips, electric hammer driver, pneumatic impact, "easy-out" reversed bits, regular metal drill bits, and even a Dremel with cutting discs. Still..... Four left.

As you can imagine, I have a variety of different head shapes by now. DP, I haven't been able to find a torx size snug enough to get that to work. As of now, the ONLY thing that has worked is pounding on the bolt with a hammer, heating it up, and grabbing it with a vice grip. By now the rest of the bolts are so misshapen that the vice grips can't get a firm hold. So, I'm stuck. I might be resorting to burning through a few drill bits tomorrow.

[BK_856er]

So you tried virtually everything EXCEPT the recommended impact driver??

BK

[ducpainter]

Get an impact driver...



not an impact gun

[ChrisK]

Never even seen one of those. The term "impact driver" in my head was correlated to a drill with the "hammer" function, which I tried. Whoops.

I will be buying one of those for the future, but I'm afraid it's too late for its use on this project.

[ducpainter]

They are indispensable on motos or on anything that uses allen headed fasteners that are loctited.

The shock from the hammer blow is more downward and doesn't tend to round off the fastener