Rusted Bolt or Stud? How to get that bastard out!!!

Owning an older bike can be a uniquely satisfying experience.  An older ride is generally going to be something more customized to the rider, something you can’t find on a showroom floor, it means you likely have a unique bond with your bike that can only come with thousands of miles spent together.  Older rides are authentic “old school” and timeless unlike much of the shtick “new old school” style Harley and others are marketing so heavily today.  Owning an older ride says something about the rider too, like maybe you’re the kind of person who doesn’t mind getting their hands dirty and who knows a thing or two about fixing and maintaining a bike.  But with owning an older bike come the complications to an otherwise routine fixes that are as unique as your bike and that’s not a good thing in most cases.

Picture this, it’s about 9pm at night on a weeknight, I’m sitting in my garage sweating my butt off in the 90 degree Texas evening, removing an exhaust pipe from my 2002 Harley Davidson Softail.  The mission…to install a simple set of torque cones and Screaming Eagle exhaust gaskets.  To a skilled mechanic, this is a 15 to 20 minute job tops, and that’s if you stop periodically to take a swig of beer.  I remove the front pipe, no trouble.  The nuts holding the exhaust gaskets on the rear cylinder are a bit different, they are slightly rusted.  No worries, I throw in a little muscle and one nut rolls off smooth as you please.  I start to remove the second nut and notice as it comes off it’s taking the dang post/bolt thread with it.  It would seem the previous owner cross thread that sucker on there.  Great, now I’m going to have to grab the trust old vice grips and try and pull that bolt the old fashioned (i.e. stupid and slow) way. 

(The cursed bolt)

A half our later I’m covered in sweat, cursing out loud, kicking my wrenches and speaking in tongues.  I’m pissed, hot, frustrated and worried.  The bolt is thoroughly mangled and what’s more, it’s rusted solidly in place.  I decide to call it a night, grab a shower and go to bed.  I have nightmares involving tearing my engine apart, machine shops, drills, heli-coils and all manner of nastiness.  I wake up and say a prayer requesting mercy and guidance (prayer never hurts a stuck bolt, trust me).  I look into all types of stud pullers, Snap-on sold a kit for $160 give or take, there was a Northern Tool kit that looked suspect, there were a couple of Craftsman options with one involving a hammer and a prayer and the other that looked like it was supposed to have a wheel that tightened on the bolt as you rotated counter clockwise.  The problem with the Craftsman wheel type was that the indents designed to “bite” into the bolt were shallower than Paris Hilton’s last relationship.  I ran across an interesting “universal stud puller” made by Titan Tools which is available at Northern Tool.  Now I’ll admit that anytime I see the word “universal” on any kind of tool I generally understand it to mean that it will “universally” not fit anything well.  But it was $30 and I was desperate so I bought it anyway.

(PB Blaster, no garage should be without this)

Now pulling a stuck/rusted bolt/stud is not about a tool, it’s about a process but having the right tool is essential.  There is all kinds of advice and voodoo available online from blow torches to impact wrenches and some of the advice is good whereas some…well, not so much.  I decided the slowest, least invasive and least permanent solution would be best.  Anything you have to drill into or use to cut into the bolt is a commitment you’re stuck with for better or worse, I wanted options.  I grabbed a $5.00 can of PB Blaster and soaked the sucker down, I mean soaked it like my name was Bernie Madoff.  I gave it a couple of good, centered whacks with a hammer and went to bed.  I recommend hitting the bolt with the hammer like you would in starting a nail into a board (meaning “lightly” tap for those readers who might be from Oklahoma).  The next morning I soaked the silly thing again and again a couple of solid (but remember not hard) whacks with a hammer.  The next day I repeated the process and I did so until the can was almost empty.  Finally I busted out my Titan and with baited breath use a pipe wrench and combo wrench to tighten the tool onto the bolt.  I was surprised that the tool came with no instructions but truth be told, it was so easy even a traffic cop could figure it out.

(The Titan Universal Stud Puller)

Now came the moment of truth, I applied a long handled 3/8 ratchet onto the Titan and took a hammer and tapped the ratchet.  The tapping wasn’t intended to get the bolt to move but instead to allow the PB Blaster to penetrate by shocking the bond between the rust on the bolt and the rust on the cylinder loose. Trust me, short quick bursts counter clockwise is much better than slow and steady.  Slow and steady equals broken stud which means crying, howling and cursing so don’t do it like that.  After tapping on it for a bit I started to kind of jerk on the ratchet slightly in kind of a bouncing motion.  At first the bolt didn’t budge but I could see the Titan tool clamping down harder as I turned.  That sucker was going to snap the bolt off before it would slip (which is a good thing since slippage means it won’t work) so I was careful.  Suddenly there was a loud satisfying crack and a squeak.  I knew that I had broken that rust bond and the stud came out pretty as you please. 

I did a victory dance, ran inside and high fived my confused wife, kissed the kids and said a brief prayer of thanks.  So if you find yourself in a similar situation do the following. 

--Take a break after you discover the problem, you’ll only make it worse if you try working on it when you’re pissed and frustrated. 

-- Research your options, my fix isn’t the only one out there though my opinion, it’s one of the less invasive/committal options if your bolt is stripped.  If it isn’t stripped a 2 nut method might work just as well if not better.

-- Learn from the mistakes of others.  If your first plan of action involves power tools you need to step away from the bike and go sit and have a “think”. 

-- Be aware that there is no one tool for every situation but every situation has a right tool for the job.  You should spend at least 10 minutes of planning and research for every one minute of actual work performed.

-- Screwing up is expensive…so don’t.  Take your time.

-- Remember it’s not about the tools, it’s the process.  Don’t rush it, use good penetrating oil like PB Blaster or Kroil and don’t be stingy. 

-- If at all possible avoid options that use an EZ Out.  If one of those things breaks off in the stud you’re likely going to have to disassemble the bike and take the jug into a machine shop, like I said earlier, start with the least invasive/permanent option first.