Ask the Editors: Bent Shifter Solutions
To save or not to save; that is the question.
It sounds to us like the advice you’ve been given pertains not to removal of the bolt that broke off on you so much as how to salvage the bent shifter. The”hacksaw trick” is the method of saving a stripped bolt that’s no longer getting any bite by cutting deeper splines with a hacksaw.
In your case, are you looking to replace the entire shifter and simply can’t remove the bolt? If that’s the situation your best bet would be to put a metal blade on a Dremel tool and to carefully cut the bolt behind the shifter but before the shaft.
The other option would be to drill a hole through the shifter and shaft, tap it, and put a bolt right through. This method is a cheap and easy fix but again it would work best if you were trying to salvage the clearly-bent shifter you have on there now.
If you’re eager to get back out there and want to attempt to straighten out the bent shifter, we have had occasional success slipping a long, hollow length of pipe over the shifter itself and applying steady slow leverage at the other end in the direction opposite the bend. In your case, because of the advanced angle of the bend, you’d want to lay the ATV on its side to accomplish this.
About 65% of the time it’ll get the shifter straightened out well enough to get back out on the trails. the other 35% the shifter just snaps at the weakest point. In which case you’d be no worse off than you are now, but have to consider one of the above removal methods.
You can get an OEM replacement (the shifter will be the same part regardless of the year of your 250EX) for around $20 – $25 like this one on eBay.
