

| Subject: | Stuck Bolt, Help, CV's '80 |
| Date: | 04 Nov 96 06:17:14 PST |
I attempted to remove the CV's on my '80 over the weekend. Trying to switch between brown bus & beige bus to salvage what I can until new CV's available at end of week. Both busses are at about 200K, both have original CV's (based on date stamp on outer housing). Beige bus has had joints flopped to wear on opposite side of races. This occurred after purchasing in '84 and under 12 month warranty. all they did was flop the joints, not replace. Brown bus shows evidence of re-packing, so flopping should be successful. So now to the stuck bolt. All bolts on brown bus were 6mm hex, as were right side of beige bus (except for 1). 12 point 8mm on left side beige inner, hex on outer. Nice mix, bleauch. Outer hex head CV bolt is REAL stubborn. Heres what I have done so far: Stripped 6mm hex. Have been using hex allen wrench cut off to fit into 6mm socket. Ground to provide good square ends of hex. Soaked in WD-40 as best accessible. Cleaned out hex in bolt with scraping and carb cleaner. Repeated grinding/attemped removal several times with same results of rounding off of hex allen. Tried using 1/4 inch (6.2mm) allen cut off and in socket, same thing, rounded off allen. I have carbide grinding tools, so am confident that I could remove head of bolt, but thought I would tap the collective intelligence and hopefully find a way to get this bolt out non-destructively. Even if I DO grind off the head, I can get the CV out, but access is limited and then I have to get the remainder of the bolt out without a head. Help! Another nasty option would be to leave bolt in place and dismantle the axle from the outside, removing bearings, seals, and such, but am already spending too much $$ so far, and while in there would end up replacing bearings, seals, etc. V@L potential respondees please respond to Type2 as I get unsub'd from V@L. - Jeff + (2) '80 Westi's, '67 Sqbk, '64 Ford Crewcab, '87 Subaru 4WD Grass Valley, California, USA, Earth
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