How to remove this dammn screw?!

I totally stripped the 6mm hex head bolt that goes into my passenger seat rail. It's recessed into the rail and I can't imagine a Dremel will fit down there. Is there some trick to removing a stripped hex bolt, when you can barely even reach it? Otherwise, a nice Brey-Krauss fire ext. mount will be for sale soon. Thanks.

[Rufblackbird]

If I were in the same situation, I would find an allen wrench/socket that's slightly bigger (either metric or standard), and pound it in with a hammer.

[Trust Me]

Do you know the trick to getting to the bolts? Front left bolt acts as a seat stopper if I remenber correctly. I know if you pull one out, you should be able to get to the rest no problem. As far as the stripped hex. Hammer a flat tip screwdriver into it.

[fintstone]

If you cannot get it out otherwise, you could probably use a large drill bit (almost as big as the bolt head) to remove the top of the bolt. Then remove the seat and use vice grips.

I'm gonna try to find a 7mm hex wrench and pound it in there. For some reason, both my hex sets do not include a 7mm wrench. There is not any room there to fit a drill bit. I have less than 6" clearance above the hex head. It's very hot out today too. This is a lot of fun.

[KTL]

Put a narrow chisel in the seat rail and slice the head off the bolt

[fintstone]

Sounds like you have less clearance than i do. There is a big difference between a 6 and 7 mm. Without seeing how badly your bolt is stripped, If I were buying one for this purpose, I would consider a 1/4 inch (@6.35mm). Good luck!

Ok, just found out that raising the seat with the button gives enough clearance to just about anything now. So I'm gonna cut a groove in the head with a Dremel and then find the widest flat tip screwdriver and back it out. I'm off.....

This sucks! Dremel will barely fit and even with the groove I cut, I cannot get my impact screwdriver to do anything with it. I'm really at a loss now.

[rcwaldo]

take a (narrow) chisel, and position it on the right side of the at an angle and dig into the bolt head a little and try to tap the bolt loose.

Chris

[KTL]

That's two votes for chisel..................

Time to get "caveman" on that stupid bolt.

SUCCESSSSS!!!!!!!!

I beat the lving pis$ out of it with a chisel and then drove a brand new torx socket bit into it. Then I used a socket to twist it out. Now I can go to the hardware store and match the good bolts. Thanks!

[KTL]

You'll find that those bolts are "low head" cheese head/allen bolts. The heads are shallower to let the seat rail slide over them without interference. I'm pretty sure you can replace them with standard hex head bolts, but you might need a thin wall socket to be able to tighten them. Most deep sockets are thin wall, but might be too long.

The low head metrics might be hard to come by at the local hardware store. Hopefully you have a good metric store nearby. If not, eagleday.com has those shallow allen bolts. So does mcmaster.com and metricmcc.com

M8x20 is the recommended size. A little longer is no big deal. Just put a tiny bit of antiseize on them (especially if there's exposed threads with longer screws) to make them easier to remove next time.

[Wil Ferch]

Actually..they're available from the Porsche dealer pretty cheap....

--Wil

[KTL]

Originally posted by Wil Ferch
Actually..they're available from the Porsche dealer pretty cheap....

--Wil

C'mon. Where's the fun in that?

[RoninLB]

1/4in drive socket fits the hex.. 3/8in drive is NG in my car.