 You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
My Dad has told me that over tighten everything, it's part of my mild OCD I think !
Anyway, I was repositioning all my brake levers etc on the bars and I've over tightened the very small bolt in my Formula brake lever and sheared it off leaving a large part of the bolt in the cable/gubbins side of the brake. It's not going anywhere but wasn't tight enough to stop movement so a cable tie wrapped around the remote seat post lever and the brake lever has held steady for two rides.
New bolt in hand but how the **** can I get the sheared part of the bolt out ? Any advice would be appreciated.
Molgrips ?
Which brake and which bolt is it (presumably bar mount)? Different approaches might work for different brakes.
I sheared off a bolt in my Hope mini master cylinder, after much messing around (ordering new bits) it turn out I could just about grab it with my nails and unscrew it.
Let your finger nails grow then try it, there may be enough metal to grab it won't be tight because it's the head that does the clamping.
Clamp the end of the bolt in vice and turn the brake lever
Tis the bar mount. Top bolt. Sheared it when I was tightening it up so I have the star socket and the top third of the bolt in my hand leaving the bottom two thirds in the main body of the brake.
What are Molgrips ? (but there is nothing to grip)
... can't get hold of any bolt and it's too small to get at with finger nails.
sometimes when it shear you can get a small screwdriver down in the hole and turn against the sheared edge.
Which brake? Some you get extra options with (Oros, you can take the back off the brake frinstance and that exposes about an extra 3mm of bolt)
Left Hand Drill bit? If you go slow you may actually be able to turn it out.... or superglue a small allen key onto it, and turn it out.
If you have snapped it because it stretched you may just be able to put a small screw driver in the end and turn it, if it snapped becuase you bottomed it out thats a whole different ball game as there is now alot of friction on the treads in that case its a drill out job 9 times out of 10.
Not going to help now but if you have ocd that bad buy yourself a torq wrench an stop yourself over tighteningbolts in the future.
Thanks for the tips. I'll try the small screw driver and super glued allen key first. Drill was going to be be my last resort.
Torq wrench added to my letter to Father Christmas, but it better leave all the heads pointing South East or they'll be murder !
I'd maybe avoid the superglue, unless you want the possibilty of a glued in bolt to add to the situation.