Fork oil drain bolt head stripped
- mkpaulk
- Posts: 10
- Joined: Tue Feb 08, 2011 5:53 pm
- Location: willacoochee,ga
- Motorcycle: 1997 GL1500 SE
1998 Valkyrie
2003 Gl1800
Fork oil drain bolt head stripped
Purchased a 97 GL and the drain bolt for the fork oil has the head striped out. If you’ve encountered this can you share how you SUCCESSFULLY removed this bolt?
- 1goldwingnut
- Posts: 63
- Joined: Wed Aug 08, 2018 10:08 pm
- Location: Athens wi
- Motorcycle: 95 20th anniversary GL1500A
Re: Fork oil drain bolt head stripped
Buy a new bolt then use a vice grips on the old one. Clamp the vice grips as tight as you can.
- Happytrails
- Posts: 963
- Joined: Wed Sep 04, 2013 6:13 pm
- Location: Natrona Hgts, Pennsylvania
- Motorcycle: 1991 Goldwing 1500 SE
2018 Ural Gearup
Re: Fork oil drain bolt head stripped
I'm guessin he meant the allen head bolt at the bottom of the fork legs? Heres a couple threads that might help.
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=16118&p=202155#p202155
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=53244
So the 3 options that people posted are take it to a machine shop and have the bolt removed, or drill down into the bolt/wack it with a big hammer to snap the head off the bolt allowing you to remove the fork tube from the leg and remove whats left of the bolt or another one I saw in a video was to jam an SAE allen slightly bigger into the round off 6mm bolt head and hope it bites enough to back out the bolt.
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=16118&p=202155#p202155
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=53244
So the 3 options that people posted are take it to a machine shop and have the bolt removed, or drill down into the bolt/wack it with a big hammer to snap the head off the bolt allowing you to remove the fork tube from the leg and remove whats left of the bolt or another one I saw in a video was to jam an SAE allen slightly bigger into the round off 6mm bolt head and hope it bites enough to back out the bolt.
Last edited by Happytrails on Fri Aug 16, 2019 6:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
1991 GL1500 SE Anniversary Edition
Sun Flare Gold Metallic
Vallant Brown Inset
Sun Flare Gold Metallic
Vallant Brown Inset
- 1goldwingnut
- Posts: 63
- Joined: Wed Aug 08, 2018 10:08 pm
- Location: Athens wi
- Motorcycle: 95 20th anniversary GL1500A
Re: Fork oil drain bolt head stripped
Sorry . I realized that after I posted. I was thinking engine oil .
- mkpaulk
- Posts: 10
- Joined: Tue Feb 08, 2011 5:53 pm
- Location: willacoochee,ga
- Motorcycle: 1997 GL1500 SE
1998 Valkyrie
2003 Gl1800
Re: Fork oil drain bolt head stripped
Well, I ended up drilling the head, weakening it enough, I was able to turn it with a screwdriver wedged in it. I just hate taking a drill to expensive parts. Thanks for the suggestions.
- Tynker
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Wed Aug 14, 2019 9:09 pm
- Location: Manvel, Texas
- Motorcycle: 2003 Honda 1300 VTX & 1989 Honda Goldwing Trike
Re: Fork oil drain bolt head stripped
When I have a Allen head strip out, I use a torx and drive it in, and the Allen generally comes out.Happytrails wrote: ↑Fri Aug 16, 2019 6:14 pmI'm guessin he meant the allen head bolt at the bottom of the fork legs? Heres a couple threads that might help.
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=16118&p=202155#p202155
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=53244
So the 3 options that people posted are take it to a machine shop and have the bolt removed, or drill down into the bolt/wack it with a big hammer to snap the head off the bolt allowing you to remove the fork tube from the leg and remove whats left of the bolt or another one I saw in a video was to jam an SAE allen slightly bigger into the round off 6mm bolt head and hope it bites enough to back out the bolt.