Help me with imperial thread stem bolt...

[medoramas]

Hi all,
It's been one of these days where everything is going not so well as it could. One of the misfortunes was that I snapped a bolt on my Orange stem... I visited two LBS', but they couldn't help me: the bolt is imperial thread, they didn't have any of that...
If anyone can help me and send one to me I will buy you a beer! (well, paypal gift...)
The picture of the snapped bolt:

It is for 5mm Allen key.
Please...

 

[We_are_Stevo]

If you don't have any joy on here you could always give these guys a ring??

http://www.boltandnut.net/socket.cfm

 

[medoramas]

If you don't have any joy on here you could always give these guys a ring??

http://www.boltandnut.net/socket.cfm

Thanks for that! I'll give them a call, but I won't be surprised if it's much cheaper to buy a new stem then ordering few hundreds of the bolts. ;-)

 

[We_are_Stevo]

Most suppliers who keep stock will sell just a few - I bought just four 150mm stainless allen bolts recently...

 

[porkypaw]

Could you tap the bottom of the stem to accept the metric bolt?
The image link is not working on my pc but guessing it will be around 8mm thread.

 

[We_are_Stevo]

Could you tap the bottom of the stem to accept the metric bolt?
The image link is not working on my pc but guessing it will be around 8mm thread.

Highlight the link (without the brackets either end), right click and select 'open in new window...'

 

[porkypaw]

Thanks for telling me how to open the link, I'm not brilliant when it comes to computers.
I was thinking it was the old type quill stem with the bolt down the centre. now I can see the image it looks around 6mm which would make the equivalent around a 1/4 inch. If it is a ally ahead stem I wouldn't tap it out an recommend getting a direct replacement.

 

[WD Pro]

Any local nut and bolt merchant or small engineering shop will identify that for you - should he easy to get a nice stainless replacement (cheaply) or even Ti (if you have cash to spare)

WD

 

[pete_mcc]

Sadly your LBS is probably talking rot. No UK based MTB brand has used an imperial bolt on a stem or any other part of a bike, even less likely is that the bolt has a metric head and an imperial thread. The only stem that I can easily think of that uses an imperial thread (with an imperial head) is an FTW stem and some other early BMX based stems but we are talking 80s US stuff in the most part.

More likely is that snapping the bolt has damaged the threads as it would take some serious cranking to snap a steel bolt in an alloy stem so maybe they need retapping or go to a decent hardware store and have them properly measure the bolt and thread.

Personally I can't believe it's is anything other than a standard metric M6. Also I would be a little worried about an alloy stem that has had an issue like that, it's not a low risk component like a brake lever or shifter mount. eBay throws up new replacement stems for a few quid and that that would be a far more sensible way to go.

 

[old_coyote_pedaller]

Agree with pete_mcc, there's no way it's an imperial threaded bolt.

Unless some twat has forced one in and that's why it has broken.


The last time I came across imperial bolts was on a circa 1980 Metro I had in 1983. A complete nightmare to spanner as it was a mixture of metric and imperial fasteners/bolts.