well I spent the day at the motocross track sunday then went home to change my oil and tranny fluid. When I slippedthe 12mm socket on my transmission drain bolt I could not for the life of me get it to turn. Eventually I gave it the old heave HO! and I stripped it! ARGGGHHH!!! So now no socket fits it and it is basically rounded now. Any suggestions on how to get the bolt off?? The only thing I can think of is to use some vice gripps and pray? Dont think I can drill it out since it is in the engine case, I hate aluminum bolts, I think this is a bad design, they are weak campared to others.
Please help!
thanks

 

dang i hate it when it happens like in the water line on a aluminum head in the 350 trans am rotts out and creates a leak only to shear off once you try to remove it and en up taking the whole manifold off and cleaning and tapping the hole get it togther only to find out the friggen water pump decided to go out at the same time ......F$%^*$#$#&**$@#@!!(_.


any how try the vice grips with lotsa penetrating lube and prayer . or drill and tap it out .

once again damn thats gotta suck

 

That bites. I thought you were talking about female strippers[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]After you get the bolt out stop by the local.......

 

I figured I get more replys if I labeled the topic that[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

You might try to cut a slot in it and use a screw driver impact driver.

Smitty

 

I know that's gotta' stink!! I was afraid I was going to strip mine on MY first trans. oil change, but it finally broke loose(dealer did the break-in change). That little booger doesn't like to come out! Unfortunately, the slot trick won't work too well because it's right in line with the lower frame rail. Guess you could take the frame section out if you wanted too.

The first thing I'd do is order a new bolt!! Once you get it, then try the vise grips. Get a good bite and tighten the ba-jeebers out of the vise grips. It'll come out of there.
Second thing to note is Cannondale's suggestion to use anti-sieze before you put the bolt back in! That's something everyone should pay attention to. Lastly, break out the torque wrench and the new crow-foot wrenches it'll take to use the torque wrench. Don't forget to calculate for the additional leverage.

I'm about to pull mine out for the second time. I followed the above steps and hope to not suffer your pain! We'll see...

BTW- the factory uses Maxima MTL oil in the transmission.

 

The only suggestions that I have is the vise-grips or small pipe wrench. I feel your pain though. I had the very same thing happen to mine - ON THE FIRST OIL CHANGE!! I even used a six-point socket to start with!! It was just too damn tight from the factory! So I took it back to the dealer - of course Cannondale covered it under warranty. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img] I always use Never-Seez on the threads now and don't tighten it real tight. Haven't had a probelm since. After looking at the drain bolt, I could see that it is a bad design. The thread diameter is about twice as large as the hex head diameter - and it's aluminum. With a larger hex head you could apply more torque to the threads. It's like trying to steer an 18-wheeler with a doorknob rather than a steering wheel. Anyway, I flipped an email to Mark at Cannondale about this a couple of months ago, so hopefully they are working on the problem already.

 

That tranny plug is a real pain not only does it leak if you dont torque it tight but that filter is a real pain to line up with the back hole correctly.Even when you do get it lined up and you screw the plug in with your fingers till it seats you REALLY dont know that the filter is even in the plug and not just laying in the bottom of the motor.Believe me I have found the filter in the bottom of the motor spent a good hour getting it back out.So you got my vote for a plug redesign.

 

Trout

I had the same problem. I used vise grips to get mine off. get a real good bite on the head then tap on the end of the grips until it loosen up.

cannondale27

I had the same problem on the tranny filter too. It took me a good hour to find and get it out of the tranny. There should be a better way to design the filter. I think the my want to attach it some how to the nut to fix this problem.

 

thanks guys, ill giver the old college try tonight and tell you how it went.