Okay, so I appear to have stripped out the bolt on my front axel (I feel like I should say that the torque rating is 9nm – 13.5nm and set correctly on my wrench wrench, but stripped anyway …).
Initially, as it was done when tightening, I thought 'fine, when I come to replace this it will probably reverse fine, however it then stripped in the other direction, so now it's stuck when I need to service the brakes and would like to replace the tyres.
The internal measurement appears to have been stripped out to ~6mm, I don't have set of callipers for ultimate accuracy, but I'm guess that's not super important right now.
So, is a screw / bolt extractor set the correct way to go here without causing further damage and does anyone have a recommendation for one which worked for them in this situation (there are tonnes of no-name brands on Amazon and I would rather pick up something relatively decent which will actually last)?
Thanks in advance and sorry for the low quality pictures, camera didn't seem to want to focus on the actual subject (or anything much, really).
by DrUmbongo
3 Comments
I’ve managed to get one of these out by banging in a 6mm hex to a decent depth and then coaxing it out. If that doesn’t work you try drilling but that’s the last resort. Be patient, take your time. Did you apply grease to the threads when you installed the thru-axle?
I would skip straight to drilling it out and using an extractor. You don’t really need to increase the size of the hole, but you need enough depth for the extractor to bite. Also, use a tap handle, not a drill to spin the extractor once it bites. They’re super brittle and a drill may over torque it and snap it (ask me how I know).
On brands, I would definitely go to a hardware store and get a real brand name, the cheap Chinese knockoffs are even more brittle and prone to snapping (again, ask me how I know).
Probably won’t apply, but have you checked the opposite end of the axle? One set I have are also machined for a smaller hex key on the other end.
FWIW for extractors I’ve had good luck with everything but the absolute cheapest out there.