Just went to lube my cables and I've stripped the heads off the nuts! OOOOOer!

You know the story. It slips once and you think "I'll get it this time!" and oops it slips again and before you know it you cant get any tool at all to get purchase on the head.

SH*T! Now what do I do......?

There must be some old wives (mechanics) tale of how to solve this!

Or do I have to get a drill or something and drill out the bolt?

suggestions please!

when i do something silly like this i if possible use a hack saw to cut a slot in the head for a screwdriver, not ideal but in a bind its a thought

Yeah, thats what I thought I'd do. BUT....

The head is recessed in the throttle housing so cant even get a grip on it.

Tried hitting a screwdriver into the head to try to make an impression but it doesn tdo enough and each time I try something it makes more of a mess of the head!

HELP!!!

Do you mean you have rounded the head off a bolt ?

If so the Mole Grips (locking pliers) may help same goes for your nuts

Yjere are other tools available to help but it depends on the situation your in ??? a picture may help there

Edit
Ahh so you've got a cross head screw that has burred over so the screw driver won't grip.....No ?

Is it the head of the bolt or the nut that is rounded?

If it is a nut then you might be able to put two cuts down it to break it apart and then fit a new one.

FIRST CHECK IT IS NOT A LEFT HAND THREAD!!!

If its the head of a bolt then wyntrblue's plan is a good start but be carefull not to cut too deep - extracting it once you have no head left is much more agro.

Mole grips?

Hammer and blunt -sh chisel (screwdriver for the heathens amongst us!) - mind your fingers! - tap it round.

Weld a bit of bar on it as a T'bar

Swear (a lot!)

Sorry guys. Let me make some sense.
I was removing the throttle/cable. Held in place by 2 phillips bolt/screws recessed into the plastic switch mount. This comes apart and has the two cables inside.

So i've made the phillips segment on the head into a round hole with nothing to grip in or around the bolt/screw

Cheers

Tried swearing....didnt help but I felt better!

ok having got crossed posts...

the bit about left hand thread still stands.

center punch and drill a small hole into it only a short distance into the bolt then use a hardend posi or philits screwdriver bit hammered into the bolt - an impact driver is good here if you have access to one and then - whilst leaning into the tool use a spanner to turn the screwdriver bit.

Ok right that is a bit of a git....

You could try and drill the head off the screw just the head mind.. but you would have to be carefull !! start with small and move up a couple of drill bit sizes just to play safe

Then you could remove the remaining thread with mole grips...

What he said; worked for me last time

as its the throttle housing, is the bolt bolted into the plastic housing or is there some kind metal attatchment? maybe you can post some pictures? i think drilling it will be your best bet but you run the risk of damaging the internal thread on the housing. you could buy a bolt extractor tool (they look like tapered drill bits), you have to drill a small hole in the end of the bolt, then you put the tool on and it locks in the hole and you just unscrew it. you might not even have to drill the head, might be able to just use the tool directly on the rounded bolt head! (oooh errrr!)

http://www.brandsplace.com/tool-hand-tools...extractors.html

and in future remember, the reason that cross head bolts round off is cuz you used a screwdriver with too small a head! always use the biggest one you can fit in there and it'll never happen! you've been told!

Yep realised I have a too small screwdriver when I first slipped. Damage down and went down hill from there.

As its set in the housing theres no nut on the back so its blind into the plastic housing. Will try out a small chisel first to make a broove for a flat head and then if that fails will buy one of these bolt removing thingys from somewhere.

Thanks people.

I'll let you know what happens.

I just wanna add as part of this, do you find it really difficult to find a good philips screwdriver? I had a similar problem with a screw on my bike, fortunately I was able to grip the head with a pair of pliers after having left it soaked in WD40 for a day!

I have about 8 philips screwdrivers and only one of them is my all time favourite that seems to fit everything!! All the others are just too pointy, too narrow, too short and fat etc, etc!

No, I paid for a box of impact driver bits, which I can use with a socket set.
These were expensive but are near unbreakable. They are also about 5 inches long so making getting at "buried" screws and bolts easy.

There is a toll designed for these situations and thats a Impact Driver, go and try and borrow one.

IF that doesnt work you will have to drill it out but that is dodgey hence it is your swtich housing.

Impact driver the fecker.

Doh!

After reading this thread and replying to it further up, I've now got similar problems! I was trying to replace my Yamaha SR125 exhaust last night, easy I thought, just 2 allen key screws at the front and 1 nut and bolt at the back... easy my a*se!
1 hour later I've managed to remove both allen key screws, both completely rusted to the engine and threads stripped. Fortunately I have a couple of very similar screws spare and they fit the same holes... Now could I move that bolt? Could I beegee's! Socket set has now been nicely rounded out and I'm out today to find another socket set and have another go tonight, I have no idea what to do if this doesn't work - I've been spraying tons of WD40 everywhere in the hope of releasing the seized nut and bolt, but that doesn't work either...

My worst thought is that, fair enough it's a 12 year old bike, but am I gonna have this problem EVERY time I try to do something!?

Glad I'm not the only one. Well, not really glad but I suppose these things happen.

Maybe if I bought a relatively new bike then these rusty bolts and screws wouldnt be a problem.

I'm off today to find an impact driver as all other methods have failed.

I'll let you know.

Good luck!!

It rather depends if the previous owner had a straw hat and a striped apron.
My wife's solo was previously owned by one such butcher. I actually bent spanners undoing nuts on it that should only have been tightened to 35 ft/lbs.
The trick is when you do take something off an old bike used new bolts/nuts/screws/washers when you put it back and copper slip the thread.
When I rebuilt a sidecar I had to heat some of the fittings up blacksmith style and bend them straight. (Why the previous owner had tightened the bolts up that tight on UNF bolts with Nylock nuts I do not know.)

If you ahven't bought an impact driver then don't at least not yet....they work just fine but for fasteners with undamaged heads etc if the cross head srew is mangled then this won't help you will have spent 10-20 quid for a tool that won't do the job

Drill the head off...just the head, then the threaded part that is screwed into the other half will be available to you as they can then be seperated and you can grip the stub with mole grips and remove it

Dont think this will work MOT.

The bolt is recessed in the throttle housing. If I drill the head off the bolt will be left flush with the housing anyway. So nowt to grab hold of.

Already bought an impact driver but like you says was of little use. Will probably come in handy someday.

Been concentrating on the Z650 instead of the zephyr at the mo as I had a major puncture the other day, so have had to take the rear wheel off. Easier than I thought, so I can now give everything a good clean while its off.

It's only the head holding the two parts of the throttle housing together...as you drill (with a drill the same ish diameter as the threaded section of the bolt you will drill through the head to where the threaded section attaches to the bolt...the head or what is left of it will then be free to remove and the threaded section that screws into the other half to pull the two sides together can be pulled through and apart to leave the stub protruding from the inside of the opposite half...it is then free to remove....no ?

Buy a socket set with six sided sockets they will grip better and give less chance of rounding bolts...Also run the bike for a bit enough to get the exhaust hot then try with your new tools to remove the bolt...give it a go

Cant get a socket into the recessed hole on the throttle housing.

Also the threaded section on the hosing that the bolt bites into is on the portion of the hosing that comes off first. So if I drill out the head then the remaining thread will still be thread into the metal part of the housing. So I wont be able to seperate the two parts.

Running the bike till the exhaust gets hot wont do much to the throttle housing on the handle bars, but I'll give it a go anyway, I'll try anything.

Cheers Mot.

fourtoes, mot's suggestions about the socket set and running the engine were directed towards beanfeast, he hijacked the thread earlier on....

about drilling the head off.......surely the housing is held on with a bolt not a screw, there should be a shank (the unthreaded portion of the bolt) long enough to reach the other half of the housing. o'm with mot on this one but maybe you are right, i just think that if both halves of the housing have a thread then it would be a strange design

the other problem here is that if the throttle housing is made of plastic then drilling the head will cause the screw to get hot and melt the plastic!

if its a metal housing then its fine..

you can get tools for removing broken studs or screws called "easy-outs"

they are abit like drill bits but are designed to grip the stud and wind it out. i know machine mart do them but not sure if they go down to sizes small enough...

machine mart link

good luck getting it apart, although you may have to end up buying a new throttle housing

Thanks Mot, I bought a new spanner set which worked a treat - no more tools from Poundland for me!

(I'll leave quietly now, before doing any further hijacking... )

Sorry MOT, should have a keener eye on whats being written in my own posting.

No worries Beanfeast as lon as you're sorted.

I'll post a pic of the bolt/screw later so you can see what I mean. Havent used the Impact driver yet as I've been busy refitting the rear wheel to the Zed.

Well eventually go the throttle housing off. When the impact driver and other methods failed I drilled the head off the bolt and it came of easy enough.

The little noggin that holds the hosuing onto the handlebar (into the hole on the handlebar) has now snapped off due to the hammer and compect driver, suppose.

Now have to find the right replacement bolts and fashion a new noggin(dont know right name for it) and reasssemble the housing.

What a palaver just to lube the throttle cables........

Anyway, thanks for the help and suggestions folks.

Isnt that little noggin and earth for the switch gear?

Wondered why it was made of metal......I just assumed it was there to help stop the switchgear rotating around the handlebars.

yep does that too....but im sure its an earth too.....woodz will know....he'll tell you im talkin out my arris

your probably both right guys! i've never had to touch a Zephyr electrically but both are possible

Just as an aside to the problem of sockets rounding off, I just bought some sockets for my electric impact driver. The sockets are a lot tougher than the standard ones and can be used with standard 1/2" socket sets as well as manual impact drivers.