I've had this problem before.

I ended up using a Dremmel tool to cut flat sides and then vice grips
to turn the bolt.

Make sure you give the bolt a very hard whack with a hammer to loosen
it up.

- Laurence

----------------------------------------
 Laurence Smith
 Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
 90 Westy / 90 Subie 2.2
 87 GL / 91 Subie 2.2
----------------------------------------

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List
> [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM]On Behalf
> Of Tom Young
> Sent: Tuesday, July 20, 2004 11:20 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Damn! Rounded over CV Joint Bolt!!!!
>
>
> Hi all:
>
> Removing CV bolts today, got over-confident and rounded out
> one of the
> Allen-head bolts.  Thank goodness it was on the trans side.
>  Since I'm going
> to remove the trans anyway I can just drill out the head of
> the bolt and
> deal with the stub later.  But, I'd kind of like to see if
> I *can* get the
> bolt out properly.
>
> I've seen suggestions to use vice-grips.  Frankly, I've
> never had much
> success with the vice-grip method and, given how tight
> these bolts are
> seated, I'm not too optimistic about that method.
>
> I've seen suggestions to use a 1/4" Allen-head socket and
> pound it into the
> rounded-over head of the bolt.  Since I'm going to re-use
> the CV joints, and
> not disassemble them upon removal, I'm a little leery of
> the "pound it in"
> method.
>
> Has anybody tried carefully cutting a "slot" in the head,
> like the slot in a
> screw head, and removing the bolt with an appropriate
> "screwdriver?"  (I
> have screwdriver-head sockets, so I can get good leverage
> on the bolt that
> way.)  Just figure it's a logical thing to try, but maybe
> somebody else had
> tried it, and can comment on how it works?
>
> TIA.
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
> Tom Young                       '81 Vanagon
> Lafayette, CA 94549         '82 Westfalia
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
>