Vespa Club of Britain forum

I am trying to remove the bolt that holds the standard exhaust on. I soaked the bolt in WD40 and then tried to remove. It was turning like a treat until it sheered off. Dohh
I have cut the other end of the nut off so i could remove the exhaust, then treid tapping (bashing) is through but it won't move. New idea i thought, i have now tried drilling it out after removing the back wheel and hub to get the drill in. I appears the bolt is made of strong substance as i have only mangaed to drill about 3/4 inch (small part of the frame as well) and gone through 6 drill bits.

Any ideas how to finish the removal before i do something daft... i thought this would have been easy :'(

persistance and in the long run you would be better off removing the engine from the frame quite honestly
It will make life a lot easier

This is such a nightmare thing to happen i have had it before and ended up taking the engine out and like you after going through most of my drill bits i took it into a shop and got them to do it before i got the heavy hammer out and took my fustration out on it.

There is another way.????
I have seen someone drill as far as they can and tapped a thread and then just fitted the exhuast again but with a bolt only and no nut.It works but not the best thing to do but its an option.

thanks, ive just come back in from drilling. For some reason the drills won't drill anymore they seem to be just spinning on the top. The metal must to proper hard. I was thinking about undoing the drop arm bolt and try to lower by about 5". This would allow me to drill from the other end. Im not sure what will happen if i undo the bolt as the engine is attached ??

Back to the Haynes manual tonight..

Have you resharped the drill bits? You only need one and an angle grinder. It's a rough way to sharpen them but seeing you have 6 to work with it won't matter. Bench grinder is easier.

Personally I would use an easyout, every good tool box should have one or two of them in it.

Follow the link below...

http://crustyquinns.com/tech/easyout.html


Steph

Tidyman wrote:thanks, ive just come back in from drilling. For some reason the drills won't drill anymore they seem to be just spinning on the top. The metal must to proper hard. I was thinking about undoing the drop arm bolt and try to lower by about 5". This would allow me to drill from the other end. Im not sure what will happen if i undo the bolt as the engine is attached ??

Blunt drill bits mate, get some cobalt bits turn the drill speed down bit keep it cool by spraying oil on the bolt and you should be able to drill it out okay, I would drill a pilot hole first 2-3mm then go up in drill bit size in stages as it keep things cooler and the bits will last longer

you will get there in the end

cheers for your advice.. An easy out sounds worth trying. I will hit B&Q in the morning and give it a go.

Easyouts are good until they break, cos they are hard, real hard. I found a new trick this year, use the "star" Torx bits, drill a hole the size of the central bore and tap in the torx bit, it'll bite on the hole, use a socket end and turn, either way which is better than an easyout too. Hey presto bolt removed and you don't have to drill too deep as with an easyout. Good luck, nothing worse than a sheared bolt.

proper nightmare mate. done a few of these. just patience, drill bits , lube, and more patience! use loads of grease next time. salty british roads to blame mate.

Too late in this case but yeh, if you feel its getting tight when trying to remove you could try applying heat to the swing arm part around the bolt with a heat gun...ally heats up quicker than steel and will expand quicker and so will help in moving seized bolts. Plenty of copper-ease /copper-slip will prevent it oxidising around the bolt next time.

take it the standard exhaust is scrap?

as a thought
can you get in with a hacksaw blade and cut of the bracket were the captive nut is crimped onto the exhaust bracket
like cut it horizontal along the bracket(left to right or right to left which ever way is easier )

as if do this the exhast will come off and allow more access to the broken bolt with the captive

then can draw the bolt more towards the front of the scooter and cut of the captive nut either with a hacksaw blade or angle grinder mini grinder or similar

when trying to drill metal with drill bits if it keeps heating up and cooling down will temper the steel in the bolt then making it more difficult to drill

for example
your bolt will probably be made of mild steel but with the heating and cooling will transfer the bit your drilling into hardened steel which is abugger to drill

rule of thumbe is the bigger the drill the lower the speed

and always best to drill a pilot hole first

If all else fails, carefully run a hacksaw along the casing where the line of the bolt is (bottom side) and gently cut down to the bolt. it will open the gap sufficiently for the old bolt to pop out. As long as you havent cut too much alloy casing away, you should be able to fit your new exhaust and it wont make any diference at all to the strength of the casing or how the exhaust is held. Saved me in the past from going down the engineers shop route.

Cheers to all for your advice.

Latest position...... Spent most of yesterday trying to drill. I even went a got some extra tough drill bits, but all drill bits have stopped drilling. I think the metal has got to hard.

So went out a brought some easy outs bits, stuck the medium one in the small hole i managed to drill and started screwing.. half a turn after it got tight i got a clonk, thought it had done the trick but it had snapped inside the hole... dohh, therefore the hole is now blocked.

Thinking of either cutting frame at bottom or

taking the drop arm off and drilling from other end where the bolt is still in tact, although i am not sure what will happen if i dont take the engine out to do this..

You can really never us a small easyout unless the thread is already loose (as in it broke while doing it up). Otherwise you need to drill them until the hole is almost out to the threads. As someone else said, drill them slowly and one of those spray bottles, set so it streams the water, so you can cool the bit and metal.