As the title says, what should I do now that the bolts are rounded out? I am taking the drive shaft off to attempt a clutch swap. So far I feel like beating the shit out of this car with a baseball bat. The six 6mm hex bolts on either side of the drive shaft will not come out. I have three out of the front and two out of the back. Two of them on the front are so screwed up I tried to get them to turn with the air hammer and ended up puncturing a hole in the grease collar. So now the bolts are still in and the drive shaft has a hole in it and is leaking grease. I don't understand why Honda put those dumb ass bolts in there to begin with much less why so tight! The couple that I did manage to get out where so tight that it took two of us pulling on a breaker bar. Once they were out I could than see that there is about an inch of white locktite on them. So what do you guys think that I should do next?

 

You only need to do one end of the propshaft to pull the tranny. Since you got three front ones, you should concentrate there (altho depending on the damage you did to the propshaft you might be stuck dropping the prop and replacing that as well)

Using big visegrips can help but it sounds like drilling out the center of the bolthead allitte then use a chisel on one end and hit it in the direction of rotation was the solution for the guy doing my swap. Goodluck and don't give up.

This seems to be a common issue on clutch replacements.

 

Large Vicegrips or a hammer & chisel. These are frequently difficult to remove

 

I already tried large vise grips, they just slip off. Is my propshaft totally screwed now since it has a hole in it, or can I just weld that shut? If you tell me that it is screwed and I have to buy a new one than I will just cut the damn thing off. This really pisses me off, I have been working on this for four hours and I only have five bolts out wtf?

 

I used a dremel with a cutting wheel and cut the heads of the 2 that I couldn't get loose.

 

If I cut just the tranny side bolts out will I be able to get the shaft out or do I need to get the rear bolts out also? I was thinking of doing this before I put a hole in the grease collar with the air chissel.

 

I don't know if you can get enough clearance with only the trany side. I have luckly never had to do this.

Yes, cut the heads off of the bolts. With the tension released, you can just remove them almost by hand.

If you need a prop shaft, I just happen to have a spare. I have have some of those bolt I would throw in as well.

 

I replied to your mail. I will try to call later today

 

Don't need to take the rear ones....

 

One other thing you could try would be to cut a large slot through the middle of the bolt with a dremel/die grinder. Make it just wide enought to fit the blade of a LARGE strait edge screw driver. Put the screwdriver through sideways and use it like a pry bar. Since the blade of the screwdriver goes all the was across the bolt it should not slip.


I know this doesn't help you much, but maybe others are thinking about changing out a clutch and want to avoid stripped bolts. When removing the driveshaft bolts I use a 3/8 impact gun and a "fresh" metric hex socket. The hex shape should have sharp edged...no rounded corners. I think the impact breaks the bolts loose quickly so has less chance of rounding. When you pull a breaker bar the slow movement has more chance of slipping or rounding.