Originally Posted by
Iride01
I'm glad you took action and did something. However don't you think that drilling the head off of the bolt and then using a punch or something to hammer on the bolt shaft might have loosened the wedge and saved the stem to be used again?…..
Yeah, of course I would have liked the issue to be solved with a non-destructive method. I approached it in three stages, from non-destructive to completely destructive. It brings me no joy to have destroyed the stem. But I am just super relieved that the steerer tube is intact and I can continue to use the original fork!
1. Let the nearly stripped bolt head soak with penetrating oil and try manual and electric impact wrenches to loosen the draw bolt. Would not budge, draw bolt head now completely stripped.
2. Drill out draw bolt head, let soak with penetrating oil, and use approximately sized pin punch and small sledgehammer to free wedge. Would not budge after 2 days of periodic whacking.
3. Cut off stem, let wedge soak with penetrating oil, place a steel tube (which fit inside the stem and around the draw bolt shaft) directly on the wedge and hit the top of the steel tube with a small sledgehammer. Several strong whacks did the trick.