Bottle cage bolt stuck. With cage attached

[coomber]

Latest piece of junk has turned up. Stuck seatpost I can deal with (I hope) although the owner has butchered it trying to seemingly stab it out.

Anyway, it has some awful screwdriver headed soft aluminium bolt that is badly rounded and stuck fast keeping the bottle cage on.

Any ideas how to get it off? I could drill it out but with the bottle cage attached, that might prove quite tricky as getting to it above is hard.

I'll grab a picture in a bit

 

[coomber]

Re:

 

[coomber]

Re:

Would it be ridiculous to file the head off, pull the cage off and then attempt to take the screw part out separately?

 

[daugs]

Re:

The only time I had this issue the insert in the frame came loose before the bolt and it all lifted away so my ideas are general but in my days playing with old rusty cars no toolkit was complete without Grabit bolt removers, essentially a reverse thread type cutter which bites into the offending bolt as it turns anticlockise and digs in and eventually bolt uncrews itself (hopefully) or maybe mashed in process. Have others tried this, I guess care needed with alloy bolt and steel insert. Grabits are excellent for rounded off screws where no bite for a screwdriver but not corroded in.

My only other thought would be drill out and careful use of a tap to clear threads, but if allow bolt and steel inserts at least the right way round. The risk again is insert is dislodged. Whats the frame made of and is it an insert of what ?

 

[mk one]

looks like someone has rounded the allen head bolt and cut a groove for a screwdriver, you could try cutting another across ways to make a posi type head. If the cage is in the way then i would just file the head off like you said so i could get at the bolt

 

[coomber]

Re:

Frame is steel. Bolt is cheap aluminium.

Cage is quite nice so wanna save it if I can!

 

[coomber]

looks like someone has rounded the allen head bolt and cut a groove for a screwdriver, you could try cutting another across ways to make a posi type head. If the cage is in the way then i would just file the head off like you said so i could get at the bolt

Thanks dude

 

[hamster]

Firstly give it a good blast with Plus-Gas and leave it 24 hours. It's amazing how often this improves matters.

If it's truly an aluminium bolt, then it should drill out easily. You could try the trick of hammering a Torx head into the recess, drilling a deeper hole if necessary. Drilling methods have the advantage of heating it up which might crack the corrosion that's undoubtedly sticking it.

 

[coomber]

Re:

I've some plumbers freeze spray coming for the seatpost. I might try that as well.

Soaking it in penetrating spray for a few days first.

Thanks Hamster and others

 

[fiendish feet]

Can you not just rotate the whole bottle cage anti clockwise
To loosen the bolt off? If its just one bolt