On the alphas you can't grind on the bolt because it's down in a hole.
I'm guessing it's the same on the pre-alphas. That's why it is an
allen head. I'm pretty sure the cases won't come apart without
removing it as well. At least it's on the list of items I remove when
I split mine. That was why I suggested hammering an oversized torque
bit into it.

Drilling is an option but you need to make sure you get centered well.
Stainless is not partcularly hard, it's just stainless. The
surrounding material is a lot softer. If you choose to drill, center
punch first. Drill a small starter hole as it is easier to keep
centered. Then use a big enough bit for the second hole so that the
remains of the head simply falls off when you get past it.

The material of the trim tab is quite soft and another approach would
be to try to chisel it off from the bottom. It would be a chore
though.


Calif Bill wrote:
wrote in message
...
On Wed, 18 Oct 2006 21:58:25 GMT, "Jim" wrote:


wrote in message
. ..
On Wed, 18 Oct 2006 20:42:19 GMT, "James" wrote:

Mine is an allen head bolt. Is it stripped out where an allen wrench
would
go in? Those are pretty hard to strip.

Maybe you can hammer a big torque bit into it.

"basskisser" wrote in message
egroups.com...

let wrote:
Trying to replace trim tab on mercruiser outdrive.
5/16 bolt stripped by last owner. Any ideas how
to get it out.

Thanks

If you mean that the head is rounded off, as opposed to the threads
being stripped, Craftsman makes a set of sockets that work on rounded
heads.


Yes it's the 5/16 allen head bolt that stripped.
Kinda hard to get at.Maybe a long drill to drill it out?
How does the lower housing drop without removing
this bolt? Sorry 1st time boat owner know nothing
about outdrives,but eager to learn.
Thanks again

No No on drilling it out, It's stainless. Sometimes the allen socket on
these screws fill up with crud. You can scrape the crud out with a special
crud removing tool. If you don't have the special tool, a #1 long blade
screw driver will do.
Jim

Allen wrench fits in (no crud) Inside edges of allen
bolt rounded so wrench just turns inside head.
Doesn't a "cobalt drill bit" drill stainless?
Thanks for your help

Drilling is a last resort. I would try the next size allen wrench, and try
a metric wrench to see if that works with a little forcing. Grind down a
bigger wrench to fit the hole, and before drilling, take a dremel tool and
cut flats on the bolt head and use a wrench. Soak it with with some PB
Blaster before trying remove.