Hi I was wondering if anyone can help. I was replacing the heel guards on my SFV4S for carbon ones. The left side was a doddle undid the bolts and fitted the new heel guard. The right side I’ve rounded both Allen bolts. Tried hammering in a torx bit. No luck. Tried making slots for a screw driver. Even tried a soldering iron to see if I could loosen the loctite. They are pretty mullered now. I’m thinking a left handed drill bit perhaps ? Damn Ducati fasteners !!! Cheers guys for any suggestions.
On my Ducati's I've been lucky enough to get to exercise every possible technique. Depending how much space you have left in the head of the bolt, you could try drilling a little wider then hammering in a larger torx for more grip. That worked for me on a stuck disc bolt with countersunk heads. Deeper may also work as more of the torx head would gain grip. On the cap head I also had some success with the spiral stud extrators, hammered in and slowly turned. Left handed drill bits have also worked for me, but only when they finally catch rather than drill. I tend to use a smaller regular drill bit as a pilot and then pull out the left handed bit. Lastly you can of course very, very carefully using a regular drill bit or 3 drill out the entire bolt.
Thanks for the advice . I may try drilling and hammering in a larger torx see how that goes. If not I’ve ordered some left handed drill bits. They shouldn’t take much drilling as they seem very soft!
Well I can't 100% guarantee but I've never had an issue once I've drilled one off. Often releasing the pressure of the head of the bolt against the heel plate makes it far easier to turn.
Well managed to get them off finally. Heated them up with a heat gun then drilled with a left hand drill bit. They didn’t budge but made a decent pilot hole for an easi out. I bought some decent quality ones in case I snapped one but these did the trick. I think a combo of heat, left drill bits and easi outs worked a treat. Thanks for all the advice.
Yup, always found that heat is your friend, followed by a good soaking in WD40 over several nights and a couple of good, sharp taps with a hammer and punch. Oh, and a good deal of swearing always seems to work as well . Glad you got it sorted
